Questions arise about number on crashed plane
Officials investigating if orders were violated
MEDAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s air force said Wednesday it will investigate if the transport plane that crashed into a city neighbourhood, killing 141 people, was violating orders by carrying paying passengers.
The dead included all 122 on the plane, including military personnel and family members, and people in a residential area of Medan city where the C-130 Hercules crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday, North Sumatra police Maj. A. Tarigan said.
The final death toll may not be known for some time.
The cause of the accident is not yet known but the pilot was trying to return to the airport because of an engine problem.
The C-130 was carrying many more passengers than the military first reported. Initially, the air force said there were 12 crew members on the 51-year-old plane and did not mention passengers. It then repeatedly raised the number of people on board, indicating lax controls and raising questions about whether the plane was accepting paying passengers despite previous promises to crack down on the practice.
Hitching rides on military planes to reach remote destinations is common in Indonesia. The plane had travelled from the capital, Jakarta, and landed at two locations before stopping over at Medan on Sumatra, one of Indonesia’s main islands.
Air force chief Air Marshal Agus Supriatna told reporters the C-130 was only authorized to carry military personnel and their families.
Dozens of family members gathered at Adam Malik Hospital on Wednesday. Outside its mortuary, more than 100 wood coffins were arranged in rows and women cried and screamed the names of loved ones killed in the disaster. A group of students from a Catholic high school in the city screamed hysterically as a body bag was opened, revealing the badly bruised corpse of classmate Esther Lina Josephine, 17, clasping her 14-year-old sister.
Hermas said the sisters were travelling during school vacation to see their parents in the remote Natuna island chain, where the father of the teenagers is stationed with the army.
Indonesia has a patchy civil aviation safety record and its cashstrapped air force has suffered a series of accidents. Between 2007 and 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety worries.
There have been five fatal crashes involving air force planes since 2008, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation disasters.
President Joko Widodo said he ordered the defence minister and armed forces commander to carry out a “fundamental overhaul” of the management of military weaponry.
The crash of the aircraft occurred only two minutes after it took off from Soewondo air force base in Medan, headed for Natuna. Witnesses said the plane was flying low and flames and smoke streamed from it before crashing.