78 dead in Indonesian Hercules crash
Posted 4 hours 27 minutes ago
Updated 1 hour 29 minutes ago
The burning wreckage of the Hercules lies scattered in East Java. (Reuters)
At least 78 people were killed when an Indonesian military transport plane crashed Wednesday in East Java, an air force spokesman said.
"The latest data that I have received is there have been 78 people killed in the accident... This number can rise because the evacuation process is still going on," Bambang Sulistio said.
Television footage showed the burning wreckage of the Hercules scattered in rice paddies in Magetan, about 160 kilometres east of Yogyakarta.
"The plane hit some houses, bounced, hit the ground and then caught fire," one witness told Metro TV.
East Java military chief Suwarno told the state-run Antara news agency that the aircraft was carrying 98 passengers and 14 crew.
The crash occurred as the plane was preparing to land at Iswahyudi military air base.
"About 15 metres of the tail is still intact, but the body to the front is broken and burnt," said Suwardi, a subdistrict head, in the district of Karas in Magetan.
"Earlier we heard blasts. But not anymore, now the plane is still on fire," added the official, who said air force personnel were trying to evacuate victims but the site was difficult to reach because it was on the fringe of a rice field.
It is the second accident involving an Indonesian air force Hercules in two weeks, after one overshot the runway of Wamena airport in Papua on May 10. One person was reportedly injured in that incident.
In response to the Wamena accident, the air force said it would check its Hercules fleet, which is being upgraded with airframe and engine capability improvements.
Early last month, 24 military personnel died when their Fokker 27 training aircraft careered into a hangar and burst into flames at an air base in West Java.
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic nation and relies heavily on air travel, but accidents are common and its commercial airlines are banned from flying in European Union airspace for safety reasons.
-
AFP/Reuters