As weeping relatives prepared yesterday for the mass burial of unidentified victims of an Indonesian jetliner crash that killed 148 people, one mother and father were quietly celebrating: Their 5-year-old son, who had been given up for dead, was found alive in a hospital.
"It's a miracle," said the boy's father, Tagor Pandjaitan, who was traveling to Jakarta with Pento when the Boeing 737-200 started shaking violently seconds after takeoff.
"Pento was sitting next to me and I grabbed onto him. Then I looked out the window and saw that the wing was on fire and suddenly flames shot into my face," the 38-year-old father said quietly as his son slept. "I collapsed, when I woke up he was gone. I was sure he was dead."
PHOTO: AP
Investigators were sifting through the charred wreckage of the Mandala Airlines plane, trying to determine why it crashed onto a crowded street in the city of Medan, creating a path of destruction as it plowed into houses, cars, and pedestrians.
Both flight data recorders have been found, officials said, and will be sent abroad for analysis.
The dead included 101 passengers and crew and 47 people on the ground, but many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Hundreds of family members have spent the last two days at the Adam Malik Hospital morgue, looking for loved ones among a long row of charred bodies. Some women collapsed as they lifted the plastic yellow sheets in search of clues -- a piece of clothing, jewelry, a familiar pair of shoes.
But by yesterday afternoon the remains of 33 people had not been identified. They were placed in coffins and loaded onto military trucks for burial in a mass grave near the airport -- very close to another that holds the remains of victims of a Garuda Indonesia plane crash that killed more than 200 in 1997.
"I've been looking for my brother for almost three days," said Hamzah, who goes by only one name, one of hundreds to taking part in the procession to the airport.
Pento's name was initially on an official list of victims, but his 36-year-old mother Maulina did not give up hope. She went from hospital to hospital, finding her son at Santa Elizabeth's 13 hours after the plane went down in a fiery ball.
"I feel very lucky," she said. "It's truly miraculous."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number