Plane crash kills 149
Apriadi Gunawan and Ridwan Max Sijabat The Jakarta Post/Medan
A Boeing-737 aircraft owned by PT Mandala Airlines Indonesia crashed into a densely populated residential area in Medan, North Sumatra, minutes after take-off on Monday, leaving at least 149 people dead and many others seriously injured.
The ill-fated plane had 112 passengers, including three children, and five crew members onboard. A local official said 104 of them had died in the crash, while 13 others had miraculously survived.
At least 39 people were killed on the ground as the aircraft slammed into Padang Bulan, a crowded residential area. Some 30 houses were destroyed by fire. Wreckage of the plane and burned vehicles littered the usually busy Jl. Djamin Ginting, which borders on the airport.
All of the victims were evacuated to the Adam Malik General Hospital, Pirngadi General Hospital and several smaller hospitals in the area.
Among the victims were North Sumatra governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin, his predecessor Radja Inal Siregar, Regional Representatives Council member Abdul Halim Harahap, pilot Askar Timur, 34, and copilot Daufir Effendi, 32.
Most victims were burned beyond recognition and hospital forensic experts are still trying to identify them.
Rizal Nurdin's body was laid out at his official residence in the city after an identification process that lasted several hours. He had been traveling to Jakarta to attend a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the country's governors.
A 3-year-old Japanese child was also killed, hospital officials told Reuters. The child's Indonesian father and Japanese mother were waiting for her in Jakarta. The child was traveling with her Indonesian grandmother.
The critically injured are receiving treatment in the intensive care units of the Adam Malik General Hospital and the Sarah General Hospital.
Two of the survivors, Rohan Sitepu, in his 30s, and Oloan Harahap, 45, said that the aircraft crashed soon after take-off.
"Most of the passengers were no longer sitting down and they all panicked when the plane started to drop and clipped the roof of a house," said Sitepu.
Harahap, who suffered serious injuries to his head and back, said that the plane had developed engine trouble before the crash.
Samir Tumanggor, a resident of Padang Bulan, said he saw the tip of aircraft's left wing hit a house. The plane then flipped over on its right side and ploughed through dozens of cars, and passersby on the road.
"After scything through the cars and people, the plane slammed into the road and exploded into flames," he said.
It took dozens of fire engines and hundreds of rescue workers some 30 minutes to arrive at the scene due to the heavy traffic congestion and the massive crowd of onlookers that had congregated at the scene.
"The traffic jams and the crowd really hampered us in trying to put out the blaze. As a result, it spread to adjacent houses. This also hindered rescue workers in getting to the survivors," said a fireman who requested anonymity.
Hundreds of rescue workers from the Medan municipal administration and the local military, and at least 60 ambulances, were deployed to evacuate the victims.
Aviation authorities said a joint team from the Ministry of Transportation, Mandala and state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II would conduct a thorough investigation into the tragedy.
Officials said the plane's black box had been recovered.
"We don't know what the cause of the accident was. The investigators will work hard to identify the reason for the crash," said Haryono, an executive at Polonia Airport.
The airport, meanwhile, remained open, and arrivals and departures were unaffected by the disaster.
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