Rescuers locate bodies from Papua plane crash

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

The bodies of 17 people onboard the missing GT Air Twin Otter aircraft in Papua were found by a search and rescue team on Monday, police say.

After stopping the evacuation because of bad weather on Sunday, the 32-member search rescue team, composing members of the National Police and Mimika Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and the Paniai Police, began evacuating the bodies from the plane early on Monday morning.

"The evacuation was completed at 2 p.m. local time (12 noon Jakarta time)," Paniai Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Anthonius Diance told The Jakarta Post.

Two helicopters belonging to Air Fast and the National Police, a Sky Truck aircraft from the National Police and a small Mission Aviation Fellowship (AMA) aircraft began the evacuation at 6 a.m. local time.

The dead bodies were later identified by a team of Papua Police forensic doctors at Enarotali Airport.

Eight were handed over to families for burial in Enarotali, while nine more, including pilot Hendry Dani, co-pilot Toto and mechanic Samudji, were taken to Timika.

The remains of Hendry would then be taken to Jakarta while Toto and Samudji would be taken to Surabaya for burial.

The names of the other passengers have not yet been released.

The wreckage of the aircraft, which was bound from Timika to Enarotali, was found the foot of Boba mountains near Enarotali by the AMA plane five days after it went missing on Tuesday.

But bad weather prevented the search and rescue team getting near the crash site on Sunday

"According to the search and rescue team, the aircraft suffered heavy damage, with its front, tail and wings destroyed and scattered as it hit the mountain. The victims were also barely recognizable, only pilot Hendry Dani whose body was still (completely) physically intact," Anthonius said.

Papua's PT Jasa Raharja insurance company head Usman Siahaan said a total Rp 850 million (US$94,444) would go to the victims' families, who would receive Rp 50 million each.

Air crashes are common in Papua, which along with neighboring West Irian Jaya province, relies heavily on air transportation.

In February, 15 people died when a Casa 212 police aircraft nose-dived into an estuary meters away from the runway at Papua's Sarmi Airport in February.

In the same month, an aircraft hit a fence when landing at the Enarotali airstrip, but there were no casualties.