Last victims of Pelita plane crash come home

JAKARTA (JP): The last two bodies of the victims of the Pelita Air Service plane crash in Hong Kong were flown to Indonesia yesterday, one week after the accident.

The two caskets came on a Garuda Indonesia plane, which landed at the Soekarno-Hatta airport. From there, they were flown to Halim Perdanakusumah Airport, the home base of Pelita, where their grieving relatives awaited.

After a brief ceremony at the tarmac, Capt. Boediono, president of the state-owned air charter company, which operated the ill-fated Hercules aircraft, handed over the bodies of flight engineer Bambang Harjono and avionic Eldon Karta Siahaan to their relatives.

Bambang was buried at the Jeruk Purut public cemetery, South Jakarta, yesterday while Eldon is to be buried this afternoon in Tanah Kusir public cemetery.

Four bodies were flown home on Wednesday.

There are six survivors of that plane crash. Five have returned, but one still remains at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong.

Indonesian and Hong Kong authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident. (rms)