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Two huge planes plough into one street: ten years apart
Sydney Morning Herald - July 1, 2015
According to reports, the transport plane ploughed into Jamin Ginting street, near Soewondo airforce base, which was once Polonia commercial airport. In 2005, a commercial plane leaving from Polonia airport crashed disastrously into the same Jamin Ginting street, killing at least 147 people.
Known for its difficult takeoff path and short runway, Polonia airport was the site of several plane crashes. Jamin Ginting street is located only a few hundred metres from the runway.
Tuesday's crash is bound to put a fresh spotlight on Indonesia's woeful air safety record and its ageing planes. "According to our data, there were 113 people on board, including 12 crew," said Air Force spokesman Dwi Badarmanto.
The figure is an update of comments by military spokesman Fuad Basya, who was earlier quoted by broadcaster MetroTV as saying there had been 12 crew and about 50 passengers on board.
"We are currently checking who was inside the plane," Mr Basya added. An official at a nearby hospital who declined to be named said that 55 bodies had been brought in so far.
Local television showed a neighbourhood of houses and hotels in flames and black smoke billowing from the area.
The C-130B Hercules aircraft, which went into service half a century ago, was on its way from the airforce base to the remote Natuna islands and crashed a few minutes after take-off, Mr Basya said. Media said the pilot had asked to return because of technical problems.
"It passed overhead a few times, really low," said Elfrida Efi, a receptionist at the Golden Eleven Hotel. "There was fire and black smoke. The third time it came by it crashed into the roof of the hotel and exploded straight away," she said.
She added the plane also hit a massage parlour, where there are normally several people during the daytime.
Black smoke billowed from the wreckage, and crowds of people milling around the area initially hampered emergency services rushing to the scene.
"We have been using heavy equipment like earth movers to clear the wreckage of the plane," said Romali, chief of Medan's search and rescue agency, who has only one name. "We are still evacuating bodies from the rubble and we hope we can finish the operation tonight," he said.
Dramatic pictures on social media showed large crowds and emergency services gathering around the flaming wreckage, with the fuselage of the aircraft visible among thick plumes of black smoke. Buildings in the vicinity of the crash zone were also clearly damaged.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 10 fatal crashes involving Indonesian military or police aircraft over the last decade.
The accidents put under a spotlight the safety record of Indonesia's aviation and its ageing commercial and military aircraft. Mr Basya said the plane that crashed on Tuesday was built in 1964.
An AirAsia plane crashed less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore on December 28. All 162 people on board the Airbus A320 were killed.
Pressure to modernise
"It's too early to say what caused today's disaster, but it will again raise concerns about air safety in Indonesia, especially since it comes just half a year after the crash of QZ8501," said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at Flightglobal, an aviation industry data and news service.
The Indonesian air force has now lost four C-130s, reducing its transport reach in an archipelago that stretches more than 5000 km from its western to eastern tips.
Air force spokesman Dwi Badarmanto said it was unclear what caused the crash and, until it was, eight other C-130Bs would be grounded.
Although Indonesia accounted for nearly one-fifth of defence spending by Southeast Asian countries last year, as a percentage of GDP it was the lowest in the region at 0.8 per cent, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
President Joko Widodo, who took office last year, has said he plans to double military spending to $US15 billion ($18.17 billion) by 2020. However, the transport plane accident could bring pressure on the president to spend more on modernising the air force.
"This incident shows us that we must renew our aircraft and our military equipment," Pramono Anung, a lawmaker and member of the parliamentary commission overseeing defence, told Reuters.
"The Hercules is already old, many of our other (weapons) systems are already old. As parliament we will support giving more funding to the military so that they can upgrade." (Reuters, AAP)
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