Airliner death toll rises to 137

By Bhimanto Suwastoyo in Jakarta
September 05, 2005

AT least 137 people are dead after a Boeing 737-200 airliner crashed into a densely populated suburb of the northern Indonesian city of Medan and burst into flames shortly after take-off today.

The Mandala Airlines jet bound for Jakarta was carrying 117 passengers and crew when it slammed into the ground just outside the perimeter of Medan's Polonia airport early this morning.
The state Antara news agency said the Indonesian Government believed all on board had been killed, but the Search and Rescue Agency later said at least nine passengers had survived.

Officials at the two main hospitals in Medan said 137 bodies had been recovered from the scene, where firefighters battled giant flames leaping from the smoking wreckage, which was scattered over hundreds of metres.

Australian consular officials were attempting to get a passenger list to determine if any Australians were aboard the airliner.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his department was trying to find out if any Australians were aboard the doomed flight.


Advertisement:
"Consular officials will obviously be trying to establish whether there are any Australians on board but at this stage we have no information about that," he told the Seven Network.
Crumpled vehicles, bicycles and destroyed houses also littered the area, while soldiers and police carried away charred and mutilated corpses.

Rohadi Sitepu, a passenger aboard the aircraft, told Metro Television from hospital that he and five other people seated in the back of the plane in row 20 had all survived.

"There was the sound of an explosion in the front and there was fire and then the aircraft fell," he said.

Rohadi said he escaped the blazing wreck by jumping through the torn fuselage and fleeing on foot as four large explosions erupted behind him.

The airline, which is part-owned by the Indonesian military, said it was too early to know the cause of the crash but the 24-year-old aircraft had undergone extensive safety tests in June.

"The probability is that the number of victims will be high, including residents on the ground," Mandala executive director Major General Asril Hamzah Tanjung told a press conference.

"This is clearly a great tragedy," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa was quoted by Antara as saying.

Telephone links with the airport and the surrounding areas of Medan, the bustling capital of North Sumatra province with a population of two million, were cut off following the accident.

The crash caused casualties on the ground.

The Pringadi general hospital in Medan said it had 49 bodies. The Adam Malik hospital said it had 88 bodies and had treated at least 15 injured people. At least four injured people were treated at the Bhayangkara hospital, staff said.

Several senior government officials were on the plane including North Sumatra Governor Rizal Nurdin, who was heading to the capital for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said North Sumatra province spokesman Edi Sofyan.

The spokesman also said he had received a report that the acting governor of the tusnami-ravaged province of Aceh was on board.

Mandala Airlines, established in 1969, is one of several low-cost airlines that fly across the vast Indonesian archipelago. It is 90 per cent owned by a foundation set up by the army strategic reserve.

The crash is one of Indonesia's worst airline accidents in recent years.

Last November, an MD-82 plane belonging to the budget carrier Lion Air crashed in the central Java city of Solo, killing 26 people and injuring more than 100.

Medan airport, situated close to the city centre, is one of the busiest in Indonesia.

It became the hub for the reconstruction effort in Aceh province following the December 26 tsunami.

Link Here