plane crash kills at least 21** (update) people in Indonesia

[tropicana]

Wed Mar 7 2007
1:26pm Melbourne Time
Australian journalists and officials were on board a flaming passenger jet that crash-landed in a paddy field in Indonesian today, killing at least eight people.
Reports say the Garuda jet was carrying 140 passengers and crew when it caught fire as it came in to land in the central Java city of Yogyakarta about 11am (AEST) today.
Australians are among almost 50 people unaccounted for. Indonesian officials say 76 people survived, with 66 taken to hospitals.

The plane apparently overshot the runway during landing and hit the airport fences.
Television footage showed thick smoke spewing from the plane's fuselage. The nose appeared to have broken off and much of the top half of the fuselage was missing.
Sky News is reporting at least five Australian journalists were on board, as well as officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Federal Police.
One report quoted Indonesian officials as saying dozens of people had been burnt to death in the crash.

The plane is completely burnt. The fire erupted suddenly from the front wheel. Before the plane landed it was shaking. Suddenly there was smoke inside the fuselage, it hit the runway and then it landed in a rice field. Television footage showed a gutted aircraft with only the tail fin intact, with police and onlookers standing nearby.

Operations director of national carrier Garuda Captain Ari Sapari said efforts were made to rescue passengers onboard the Boeing 737-400.

A DFAT spokesman said a crisis centre had been set up in Canberra and "embassy officials are on the ground in Jakarta and are liaising with emergency officials".

"We will have updates coming in throughout the course of the afternoon," he said.

The Detikcom news website said the crashed plane was a Garuda jet from the country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. flying to Yogjakarta, on the main Indonesian island of Java, from the capital Jakarta.
It said ambulances and fire trucks had rushed to the scene.

Latest in string of accidents

Indonesia's flight safety record has come under renewed scrutiny since an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 with 102 people on board crashed into the sea off the island of Sulawesi on New Year's Day with no survivors.

Just last Friday a Boeing 737-200 operated by local Indonesian carrier Merpati Nusantara was forced to make an emergency landing on Batam Island after the pilot reported a dangerous oil leak.

The steady stream of accidents and safety scares involving Indonesian airlines has forced President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to form a team to evaluate and improve transport safety.
Indonesia's state news agency Antara said the plane crashed and exploded at 7am local time (11am AEDT) and passengers were trapped inside the burning fuselage.

The make and type of the aircraft was not immediately available, but Antara said the flight number was GA-200, which would be a Jakarta to Yogyakarta flight.

-end-

[JonathanBelles]

Indonesia is having a bad day.

[HURAKAN]

Once again, poor people. Since the tsunami event, it's like all the bad luck is concentrated in Indonesia. Now TC Jacob could get close enough to provoke more rainfall to worsen the flooding situation and landslides.

[tropicana]

Fri March 9 2007
12 midnight Melbourne AUS

A MASSIVE downdraft caused Wednesday's crash of a Garuda jet that killed at least 21 people, including five Australians, according to the pilot.
But the pilot and his crew, who are being held against their will at a military hospital, have not been cleared of responsibility. Investigators have yet to interview the injured pilot, who is said to be suicidal.
Australian police and safety officials joined the investigation, which is also examining the possibility that equipment failure contributed to the crash. The plane's black box flight recorders have been recovered and will arrive in Canberra today for analysis.

The pilot, Captain Marwoto Komar, has told Captain Stephanus, president of the Garuda Pilots Association, that the Boeing 737's wing flaps may have malfunctioned during the landing. Although a plane would normally fly around and for a second attempt at landing in such circumstances, Captain Komar believed he had to continue the landing after the initial impact.

The two pilots and the other four surviving crew were being imprisoned by Indonesian police at Harjo Lukito military hospital.

Military police guarding the crew said they were under strict instructions to isolate them. The 45-year-old pilot has been a Garuda captain for five years and had 22 years' experience as a pilot. The Boeing 737 was 15 years old.
-justin-