East Kalimantan plane crash kills seven
East Kalimantan plane crash kills seven
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Seven people were killed, including a baby, and three others were
injured in a plane crash in East Kalimantan on Thursday, an
incident that followed a similar crash in July where nine people
were injured and one survived.
An airport official in Tarakan confirmed that the small
Dirgantara Air Service plane with 10 passengers and crew members
onboard, crashed into a swampy area two minutes after takeoff
from Tarakan airport in the province.
The official said the plane was on a scheduled 80-minute
flight to the nearby town of Long Bawan, "but, just two minutes
after taking off, the pilot radioed that he had to return to the
airport."
The crash site was only 1.2 kilometers from the airport's
runway and the plane, with its nose buried in the swamp, did not
catch fire because of rainy conditions (photo above).
He said three people, including a five-year-old boy, survived
the crash. They -- Suryanto, Yanto and Adi-- are still in a
critical condition at the Tarakan General Hospital.
The seven that were killed instantly have been identified as,
Eddy Yusuf, Desy, Apoliana, Indra, Sarjani, Kanapi and Rachmat.
All the dead victims were taken to the hospital before being
handed over to their relatives.
The Indonesian part of Borneo island is covered by vast
tropical forests. There are few roads and air travel is common.
Because of extremely poor maintenance, plane crashes occur
frequently in the country.
In July, nine people were killed when a cargo version of the
Britten-Norman BN-2B smashed into a mountainside while on a
routine, one-hour flight in the same region.
One person survived the crash. Bruised and starving, the
survivor told authorities that he had walked for five days from
the crash site through the dense jungle before coming upon Papadi
village.
The chairman of the local office of Search and Rescue Agency,
Kusnaidi, said the eight-seat-Britten-Norman airplane which was
also operated by Dirgantara Air Service crashed after both of its
engines developed mechanical trouble. It went down after failing
to make an emergency landing.