An Indonesian military transport plane carrying 110 passengers and crew crashed and burst into flames in East Java yesterday, killing at least 98 people on board and on the ground, officials said.
The C-130 Hercules aircraft ploughed into several houses on the ground, scattering debris and sending flames and billowing smoke into the air, in the latest of a series of air disasters in a country with a poor air safety record.
Air force spokesman Bambang Soelistyo said that 98 people had been killed, including two on the ground, while there were 15 survivors.
“Some victims are still at the crash site,” Soelistyo said.
He said the plane, with 11 crew and 99 passengers, had crashed about 6.5km from the Iswahyudi air force base in East Java while preparing to land.
National military spokesman Sagom Tamboen told a news conference the aircraft had been in good condition and the weather was clear before the crash.
But army chief Djoko Santoso later said there had been fog around the time of the crash.
The plane had been on a regular flight from Jakarta to the Iswahyudi air base in Magetan to transport military personnel and their families. It had been due to fly on to Sulawesi and Papua.
Television footage from the scene showed people desperately trying to extinguish flames with buckets of water.
Agus Yulianto, an eyewitness, told the Kompas newspaper Web site that the plane appeared to tilt in the air and objects rained down from it before it crashed.
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