Breaking News! Air Crash in Medan, Sumatra
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Monday, September 5, 2005 Posted: 0555 GMT (1355 HKT)
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A passenger jet crashed into a residential area Monday after it took off from an airport in Medan and dozens are feared dead, officials said. .....Dozens were feared dead; The Associated Press, citing a government spokesman, said all 117 people aboard were killed.....
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/09/05/indonesia.plane/index.html -
yup, crashed into a residential area..sigh...
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Sept 5, 2005
All 117 aboard crashed Medan flight dead
JAKARTA - An Indonesian jetliner crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the city of Medan one minute after take-off on Monday and burst into flames, witnesses said.
117 people, including several senior government officials, were on board the plane when it burst into flames one minute after take-off. -- AP
All 117 passengers aboard are dead, according to a government spokesman.
The plane was operated by Mandala, a low-cost carrier, and was heading to Jakarta when it crashed, a witness told Metro television station.
The operations director told the local radio that at least 30 charred bodies had been recovered from the wreckage.
A doctor who was overseeing the removal of charred bodies said that at least 60 people were killed.
An Indonesian minister has said that several senior government officials were also onboard.
North Sumatra Governor Rizal Nurdin and a former North Sumatra governor, Raja inal Siregar, were on the flight on their way for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The acting governor of the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh was also on board.
Firefighters were at the scene trying to put out the blaze, witnesses told the station.
The airport in Medan, the largest city on Sumatra island, is close to the centre of town and surrounded by densely populated residential areas. -- AP, AFP
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terrible
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The plane was used since 1981
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amitofo
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fatality now stands at 137, likely more.
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technical failure?
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shockingly, gubernor of sumatra and acting gubernor of aceh inside...
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sadly, the north sumatra governer was killed..
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of course there will be plenty more, in fact they're hiding the god damned toll.Originally posted by YI:fatality now stands at 137, likely more.
my relatives (dad's side) ALL reside in Medan, gave us a call yesterday telling us how bad the situation was, and they were shocked by the scale of the disaster. the whole place still stinks of charred flesh and many people (esp kids playing at the roadside) were killed by the flying debris. somemore my aunt was drivin around that area at the point of the incident, the ground shook, just a loud deafening boom.
Edit: An btw, the rescuers collected quite a lot of jewellery from the dead bodies. -
The debris got jewllery to collect? Hmm...wonder if it came from the government officials...
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Sept 6, 2005
MEDAN AIR CRASH
What went wrong?
The airline classifies it as take-off failure but says it does not yet know the cause
By Salim Osman
Indonesia Correspondent
JAKARTA - OFFICIALS were searching for clues to the crash of the ill-fated Boeing 737-200 jetliner that hit a densely populated suburb of the Indonesian city of Medan yesterday, moments after take-off from Medan's Polonia airport, and burst into flames.
INSPECTING THE WRECKAGE: Searching for clues, Indonesian officials comb through the smouldering wreckage of the ill-fated plane that slammed into a busy neighbourhood in Medan, setting fire to houses, shops and cars as it broke apart. -- AFP
It was the second deadly air accident in Indonesia in nine months.
Witnesses said the jetliner heading to Jakarta in overcast weather started shaking violently when it reached an altitude of about 100m and then tilted left before smashing straight into a row of houses on the ground.
Other reports said the aircraft hit electrical wires before plummeting into a densely populated neighbourhood located barely 500m from the airport.
But few were clear on the cause of the accident.
'For now we are saying the cause is due to take-off failure but we don't know yet whether it was from engine trouble, human error or weather,' Mandala Airlines spokesman Johanese told The Straits Times.
Some observers said the haze that had reappeared in the nearby Riau province following new fires in the Kampar regency could have affected the pilot's visibility.
Both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the accident.
But much attention was focused on the maintenance of the aircraft, which is managed by a military-run foundation that has been forced to cut fares and services in recent years to remain competitive.
Mandala Airlines, started in 1969, is considered a low-cost airline and its 15-plane fleet consists mainly of 1970s-vintage Boeing 737-200 jets.
Observers also highlighted the fact that the crash comes at a time when airlines have been facing renewed pressure because of rising fuel costs.
Aviation expert Dudi Sudibyo said: 'Because of the crisis, the cost of running any airlines has soared and many carriers have to fold up.'
Airline managements should not be allowed to 'cut corners' he said, calling for a detailed investigation into the crash.
'My worry is that many of our low cost carriers and budget airlines may not have a good safety record,' he said.
MOVING THE DEAD: Residents and rescuers moving a body of a victim killed in the crash of the Boeing 737 in Medan, North Sumatra, yesterday. -- AP
The airline, meanwhile, strongly defended its maintenance record and said that the 24-year-old aircraft had undergone extensive safety tests in June before being cleared for flying.
A Mandala Airlines spokesman said that the carrier had not had any serious mishap before.
'This aircraft was given a thorough check and declared air-worthy on June 7,' he added.
Some others attributed the crash to a technical difficulty. They said that it was possible that the plane was in trouble soon after the pilot began the drill for take-off but he could not abandon it.
Another pilot told the news channel here that the aircraft was possibly overloaded and had difficulty attaining the required height.
ESCAPING DEATH: A survivor of the plane crash in a Medan hospital yesterday with his family at his bedside. -- AFP
All eyes will now be set on the probe. The jet's blackbox has already been found, the head of the National Transport Safety Committee, Mr Setyo Raharjo said.
Seven committee members are also now on site to investigate the crash, he said.
The crash, meanwhile, has raised fresh concerns about aviation safety in Indonesia.
In December, a plane operated by Lion Air, a budget airline, skidded off the runway in Solo killing 26 people on board.
Indonesia's worst crash was in September 1997, when a Garuda Airbus smashed into mountains near Medan, killing all 232 people on board.
It had flown from Medan's Polonia airport when the sky was clouded with thick smog from forest fires in Riau.
salim@sph.com.sg -
STRING OF AIR DISASTERS
YESTERDAY'S plane crash in Medan was the sixth deadly one this year - all involving small airlines. In one particularly horrific nine-day stretch last month, three disasters took place. The crashes were:
Aug 23: A Tans airline Boeing 737-200 crashed on an internal flight in Peru, near the city of Pucallpa. At least 40 people died.
Aug 16: A Colombian plane operated by West Caribbean Airways crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.
Aug 14: A Helios Airways flight from Cyprus to Prague, with 121 people on board, went down north of the Greek capital Athens, apparently after a drop in cabin pressure.
July 16: An Equatair plane crashed soon after take-off from Equatorial Guinea's island capital, Malabo, west of the mainland, killing all 60 people on board.
Feb 3: The wreckage of a Kam Air Boeing 737 flight was found in mountains near the Afghan capital Kabul, two days after the plane with 104 people aboard went down.
The above crashes led to several countries, including France and Belgium, publishing blacklists of airlines banned from their territories for safety reasons. -
i knew sth was fishy! but no one listened....
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Sept 6, 2005
Medan crash kills 149
Jet slams into homes, shops after take-off
By Salim Osman In Jakarta and Devi Asmarani In Medan
AN INDONESIAN domestic airliner slammed into a busy neighbourhood in Medan shortly after take-off yesterday, killing 102 people on board and 47 on the ground.
HELLISH LANDSCAPE: Charred bodies were found among the plane parts. Up to 17 passengers, including a toddler, survived. -- PHOTO: AP
As the Mandala Airlines plane plunged to the ground, it skidded onto a road and slammed into the Padang Bulan neighbourhood, setting fire to houses, shops and vehicles.
Among those killed in the crash were North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin and a legislator, Abdul Halim Harahap.
Witnesses spoke of people on fire as they fled the Boeing 737-200, which went down seconds after taking off from Medan's Polonia airport.
'I saw at least 20 people running around with their clothes alight,' a shop owner named Awi told the Associated Press. 'They were shrieking in agony and shouting Help! Help!'
The plane was on its way to Jakarta in overcast weather when it went down barely 500 metres from the airport. Up to 17 passengers survived the crash, including a toddler, officials said.
One of the passengers, Mr Rohadi Sitepu, said all the survivors were seated in the back of the plane. 'The plane had taken off, but then it started to shake violently and swerved to the left, and then wham! a ball of fire came from the front of the plane towards the back.'
The cause of the accident was being investigated.
The aircraft, which was built in 1981, was declared airworthy after a thorough check on June 7, said a spokesman for Mandala, one of several low-cost domestic airlines.
As firefighters struggled yesterday to put out the fire which engulfed dozens of houses, there was pandemonium on the ground as residents searched frantically for missing relatives and friends. It was a hellish landscape of charred and mutilated bodies scattered among broken plane parts, gutted buildings and burnt- out cars.
Medan's airport near the city centre is one of the busiest in Indonesia.
Residents have argued for years that the airport be moved. Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters at the crash site yesterday that tender for construction of a new airport will be opened this year.
Yesterday's crash was the sixth deadly one involving small airlines this year. Five of the crashes, including yesterday's, have come in the last two months.
The spate of crashes led to several countries banning some airlines from their airspace for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, a Singapore Foreign Ministry statement said yesterday it had not received any reports of Singaporeans involved in the crash.
It added that the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta and the consulate in Pekan Baru were in touch with the local authorities and would continue to monitor the situation closely.
Singaporeans who are anxious about the safety of relatives and friends in Medan can call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Duty Office at 6379-8800 or 6332-0000 (24 hours).
salim@sph.com.sg
dasmaran@indo.net.id -
take off failure?
pilot did not do proper take off setting? -
no idea, next time take SQ flights safest one.
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SQ also got crash in Taipei
but i dont think its their fault
worse thing is, Taipei authority has the last say, because its their territory
sheesh....