MEDAN, Sept 5: Burned bodies lay strewn among the scorched and mangled wreckage of the Mandala Airlines plane which crashed on Monday in a busy avenue in the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses said. Some 30 houses were damaged and gutted by fire after the Boeing 737-200 crashed shortly after taking off for a return flight to Jakarta in the morning.
Debris from the wreckage and at least five burned vehicles littered the usually busy main avenue bordering Medan’s Polonia airport.
“I immediately went there when I heard of the accident and I could still see plenty of burned bodies littering the street,” said local resident Rudi Gurusinga.
He said many of the victims were passengers of several public minibuses.
At least 137 bodies have been found from the crash so far, hospital officials said. The airplane only had 112 passengers and a crew of five.
Syarifuddin, a local police auxiliary, told AFP 11 local residents were reported to have died in the incident and agreed many of the victims on the ground were minibus passengers. Several were hit by parts of the airplane as it crashed.
Heriansyah, a coordinator of the Medan chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross, said “we estimate there are still bodies under the wreckage”.
He and some 10 other Red Cross volunteers were awaiting the resumption of search and rescue work that had been halted shortly before dusk.
In front his heavily damaged grocery store, shopkeeper Daniel assessed his losses.
“One of the shop attendants is still missing.... my two young children are in critical condition and my wife has to undergo surgery,” Daniel said, adding he was out on business when the plane hit the building.
Some residents lingering at the edge of the crash site said the plane first hit the grocery shop before hitting other two-storey shops on the other side of the avenue.
At least two of the shops were damaged by fire and were now roofless.
“The airplane’s wheel struck one of the tall signal lamps inside the airport,” said Rizal, a 19-year-old high school student who witnessed the crash.
At the Adam Malik hospital, the nearest to the airport, families of victims, handkerchiefs covering their mouths and noses, checked charred bodies laid on the floor of a large room to look for their missing relatives.
So far only seven had been identified from ID cards and other possessions found on them.
Outside in the yard, other families comforted each other waiting for news of their missing kin.
A heavy tropical downpour doused the fires caused by the crash and finally drove off most of the thousands of curious onlookers who had thronged to the crash site.—AFP
MEDAN, Sept 5: Burned bodies lay strewn among the scorched and mangled wreckage of the Mandala Airlines plane which crashed on Monday in a busy avenue in the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses said. Some 30 houses were damaged and gutted by fire after the Boeing 737-200 crashed shortly after taking off for a return flight to Jakarta in the morning.
