VP mourns death of Rizal Nurdin

VP mourns death of Rizal Nurdin

MEDAN, North Sumatra: The Vice President on Thursday visited the widow of North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin who was among 150 people killed in a Mandala Airlines plane crash earlier this month.

The visit was made as a Garuda Indonesia plane, carrying Kalla accompanied by his wife Mufidah Kalla and his entourage, was making a transit at Medan's Polonia Airport for refueling before heading back to Jakarta from South Africa.

During the brief meeting at around 3 p.m., Kalla extended his condolences to Rizal Nurdin's widow Siti Maryam over the death of her husband on Sept. 5, 2005, in which the Mandala plane slammed into a densely residential area near the Polonia Airport.

Kalla told Maryam that he knew her husband when he was involved in humanitarian activities for victims of the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra. -- Antara