18 dead in Indonesian plane crash

In this photo released by Indonesia Air Force's Elite Force. the wreckage of a Spanish-desinged aircraft CASA C-212 is seen in Bahorok, North Sumatra, Friday, Sept. 30, 2011. Rescuers trying to reach the plane that crashed in the mountains of western Indonesia said Friday there still may be survivors, after spotting the wreckage intact in the trees with one of its doors opened. (AP Photo/Indonesia Air Force's Elite Force)

MEDAN – All 18 people aboard a plane that crashed on Indonesia’s Sumatra island were found dead Saturday, an official said, after two days of hampered efforts to reach the remote jungle site.

Hopes that some on board the aircraft might be alive had been raised when a victim’s mother reported that her daughter had called her from the plane after the crash Thursday, and aerial photos showed the main cabin largely intact.

But after rescuers finally reached the site national search and rescue operations head Sunarbowo Sandi announced: “We received a radio response from our team on the ground that all 18 people on the plane had died.

“The passengers were still in their seats. A team is trying to cut through the aircraft and retrieve the bodies.”

As Sandi confirmed the deaths, scores of relatives who had gathered in Bohorok in North Sumatra, near where the Nusantara Buana Air Casa 212 went down after departing Medan, let out cries of despair.

Some passed out and were taken away on stretchers, while others lambasted the government for its slow response.

Reike Andriani, whose relatives on board the aircraft included a 20-month-old baby, said she was angered by the delayed rescue attempts.

“Why did this process take so long? They just kept saying that they would reach there soon, and they kept blaming the weather,” she said.

Another woman added: “They just kept saying the weather was bad, the weather was bad. They don’t have a proper system.”

For two days rescuers tried to reach the crash location by foot and by helicopter, but rough terrain, strong winds and heavy cloud and rains forced three teams travelling by land and several helicopters to return to Medan.

The Indonesian Transport Association said that the rescue teams had followed standard procedures and had done their best given the “impossible” conditions.

“The weather in Bohorok is extreme and unpredictable. There was heavy rain, fog and strong winds,” the head of the association’s aviation forum Suharto Abdul said.

The turboprop plane took off from Medan on Thursday morning heading for the nearby province of Aceh.

But it sent a distress signal soon afterwards and crashed at 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) in a mountainous area about 70 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of Medan.

A search team on the ground built an emergency helipad Saturday to enable the bodies to be transported to Medan, where the health department and police will examine them before they are taken to hospital.

But Sandi warned that bad weather could again disrupt the process.

The incident is the fourth fatal air crash in Indonesia in the past month.

A helicopter chartered by US giant Newmont Mining crashed last Sunday in central Indonesia, killing two people on board.

Earlier in September, an Australian and a Slovak pilot were killed when their small Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft, which was carrying fuel and food to a remote area in Papua province, went down.

Another small aircraft, which was also transporting supplies to remote villages for a Christian organisation in Papua, crashed last week, killing its American pilot and two passengers.