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Indonesian
soldiers help search for clues. (Reuters)
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MEDAN,
Indonesia, September 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -
Investigators Tuesday, September 6, hunted for clues in the wreckage
of the crashed jetliner in northern Indonesia as the airline ruled out
terrorism in the disaster which killed at least 150 people.
The
Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 plunged into a suburb of Medan Monday,
seconds after taking off from the city's airport. A total of 103 of
the 117 people on board were killed and 47 people on the ground also
perished.
Mandala
Airlines spokesman Det Elfisra said foul play was unlikely.
"There
are no signs of terrorism," Elfisra said, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Newspapers
expressed concern about airline safety in Indonesia, saying a price
war between low-cost operators was cause for concern at a time when
the cost of fuel and spare parts was rising.
"If
this absurdity is maintained, surely sacrifices have to be made. In
Indonesia, it has become a common matter that passengers, including
safety, are being sacrificed," Media Indonesia said.
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew into Medan to attend the burial of North
Sumatra Province governor Rizal Nurdin, who was among the victims of
Indonesia's worst air disaster for eight years.
Provincial
spokesman Edi Sofyan said the president would visit the crash site,
where investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee
were sifting through the charred carcass of the plane and collecting
debris.
At
dawn Tuesday, dozens of soldiers combed the crash site for human
remains and a strong stench of burning hung in the air, Reuters
reported.
Setio
Raharjo, a member of the eight-man team, told AFP the black boxes --
the flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which contains the
last communication between the pilot and control tower -- had been
recovered.
He
said the engines would be taken to Jakarta to determine if the crash
was caused by engine failure, while the plane's recorders would be
sent to the United States, Taiwan or Australia for analysis.
Investigators
have yet to offer any information about the possible cause of the
crash, while Rahajaro said the investigation should take seven to 10
days.
Survivors
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Masked
grieving relatives try to identify their lost ones. (Reuters)
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Miraculously,
15 passengers in the tail section of the Boeing 737-200, including a
toddler under the age of two, survived the crash and were being
treated at a nearby hospital, according to Reuters.
"At
first I heard a bang. Then I looked up (to the ceiling) and there were
balls of fire and then my son and daughter-in-law came to get
me," Mariam, a 73-year-old grandmother, told Reuters while
sitting in the blackened wreckage of her former home.
"We
all ran from the back of the house," she said weeping.
Around
her, at least a dozen destroyed homes could be seen.
Priyono,
45, whose house was destroyed, said he fled taking only his family.
"Praise Allah my whole family is saved. That is the most
important thing."
Mourning
Medan,
Indonesia's third largest city, was in mourning. Residents flew
Indonesia's red and white national flags at half mast.
The
plane split open and burst into flames as it ploughed into a busy
street not far from Medan airport. Residents said the airliner hit a
grocery shop before smashing into two-storey shops on the other side
of the avenue.
Some
30 houses were gutted by fire. The plane's wreckage and at least five
burnt-out vehicles littered the avenue.
Distraught
people crowded hospitals and mortuaries where relatives struggled to
identify bodies.
"Many
of the victims have been charred and have no marks that could identify
them," said Cut Sri Elvita, a doctor at Adam Malik hospital.
Wearing
face masks to fight the stench, relatives made desperate searches
through the grisly remains.
Yusnita
Sitepu, with tears streaming down her face, told AFP she was still
looking for the bodies of her family -- including her sister and the
woman's three-year old son.
"So
far I have only found her husband's body," she said. "I
could identify him because he was wearing a bracelet he bought from
Makkah when he performed Hajj."
Mandala
Airlines was set up in 1969 and is one of several low-cost airlines
that fly across the vast Indonesian archipelago. It is partly owned by
the military.
Monday's
crash was the worst in Indonesia since a Garuda Indonesian Airways
A300 Airbus crashed on approach to Medan in September 1996, killing
234 people.
In
November last year an MD-82 plane belonging to budget carrier Lion Air
crashed in the central Java city of Solo, killing 26.
August
(2005) was a fateful month for air passengers as it saw a series of
civil aviation disasters across the globe.
On
August 14, a Cypriot Boeing 737 plane crashed outside Athens killing
all 121 people on board.
Two
days later, an airliner crash killed 160 people in Venezuela, almost
all of them French tourists from the Caribbean island of Martinique.
A
Peruvian plane crashed on August 23, killing 60 people on board.
