C-130 crashes in Indonesian city

People on ground among 141 bodies recovered from rubble

Military personnel on Tuesday search for victims around the wreckage of an air force transport plane that crashed into a residential neighborhood in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
Military personnel on Tuesday search for victims around the wreckage of an air force transport plane that crashed into a residential neighborhood in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

MEDAN, Indonesia -- The death toll from the crash of an air force transport plane in Indonesia jumped to more than 140 today, indicating multiple people were killed in the neighborhood where the plane went down.

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AP

A map showing the location of plane crash in Indonesia.

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AP

Rescuers search around the wreckage of an Indonesian air force C-130 transport plane that crashed into a residential neighborhood shortly after takeoff early Tuesday in Medan, Indonesia’s third-largest city. More than 140 people were killed, officials said.

The C-130 Hercules, carrying military personnel and their families, struck a building in Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city. Witness accounts suggested the plane suffered an engine fire before crashing shortly after takeoff Tuesday.

North Sumatra police official A. Tarigan said today that 141 bodies had been recovered from the rubble.

The air force said there were 122 people on the plane, including military personnel and their families.

Air force officials said there was little hope of finding any survivors.

The crash of the transport plane, which had been in service since 1964, occurred only two minutes after it took off from Soewondo air force base around midday.

The pilot told the control tower that he needed to turn back because of engine trouble, said the air force's chief air marshal, Agus Supriatna.

"The plane crashed while it was turning right to return to the airport," he said.

Many passengers were relatives of military personnel. Hitching rides on military planes to reach remote destinations is common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that spans three time zones.

Indonesia has a patchy civil aviation safety record, and its cash-strapped air force also has suffered a series of accidents. Between 2007 and 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.

The country's most recent civilian airline disaster was in December, when an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board crashed into the Java Sea en route from Surabaya to Singapore. There have been five fatal crashes involving air force planes since 2008, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation disasters.

Fahmi Sembiring of Medan said he saw the gray Hercules flying very low as he was driving.

"Flames and black smoke were coming from the plane in the air," he said.

Sembiring said he stopped not far from the crash site and saw several people rescued by police, security guards and bystanders.

Another man, Janson Halomoan Sinagam, said several of his relatives were on the plane.

"We just want to know their fate," he told MetroTV, weeping. "But we have not yet received any information from the hospital."

The plane's manifest showed 50 people were on the flight from Medan on Sumatra to the remote Natuna island chain, according to North Sumatra Police Chief Eko Hadi Sutedjo, but the actual number was higher.

Supriatna said there were more than 100 passengers and a crew of 12 on the plane before it reached Medan. It had traveled from the capital, Jakarta, and stopped at two locations before arriving in Medan, a city of 3.4 million.

It was the second time in 10 years that an airplane has crashed into a Medan neighborhood. In September 2005, a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into a crowded residential community shortly after takeoff from Medan's Polonia airport, killing 143 people including 30 on the ground.

On Twitter, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said he and his family extend "heartfelt condolences" to the families of victims.

The government will evaluate the age of air force planes and other important military equipment, he said.

Aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said numerous nonfatal accidents involving air force planes this year are worrying and suggest there could be shortfalls in areas such as training.

Previously, the air force's safety record was marred by low flight hours and parts shortages that stemmed from a U.S. ban on defense sales to Indonesia, but that no longer applies with the lifting of those restrictions more than five years ago.

Medan is the third most populous city in Indonesia after Jakarta and Surabaya.

Information for this article was contributed by Niniek Karmini, Stephen Wright and Ali Kotarumalos of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/01/2015

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