Indonesian military plane crashes on Sumatra

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Rescue teams search the wreckage of a military plane after it crashed in Medan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra

Kate Lamb in Jakarta-Tuesday 30 June 2015

More than 100 people on board an Indonesian military aircraft that careered into the side of a building and burst into flames just minutes after take off are feared dead.

Twelve crew members and 101 passengers, including military officers and their family members, were on board the C-130 Hercules plane when it crashed shortly after leaving an air force base in Medan on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

Air force chief Agus Supriatna told local Metro TV news he was doubtful there would be any survivors.

“No, no. No survivors,” he said when asked about the possibility, “I just returned from the site.”

The Hercules plane crashed into a residential area in the densely populated city of Medan two minutes after take off from the Soewondo air force base en route to drop off supplies to the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea.

Police and rescue teams have pulled 49 bodies from the crash site and transported them to Adam Malik general hospital in Medan to be identified.

Dramatic pictures of the scene uploaded to social media showed the wreckage of the aircraft in flames and a crowd of onlookers amid the plumes of thick smoke.

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Gerry Soejatman @GerryS

#BREAKING #IndonesianAirForce #C130 reg no. #A1310 crashed departing Medan Polonia otw Tanjung Pinang.

1:42 AM - 30 Jun 2015

“I saw the plane from the direction of the airport and it was tilting already, then I saw smoke billowing,” local resident Januar, 26, told AFP.

Other shots showed the side of one building gutted by the impact of the crash and damage to nearby buildings and cars.

According to Supriyatna, the Hercules aircraft was conducting a routine logistics operation. Produced in 1964, the marshal said the aircraft was well maintained and regularly used to transport personnel.

But in the wake of the crash, angry lawmakers from the Indonesian parliamentary commission on defence have called on the government to replace its aging military aircraft.

“We in the commission ask the government to buy new planes for the air force. The current fleet is mostly made up of old, poor-quality aircraft. It’s shameful that our soldiers still have to use them,” Pramono Aung told the Jakarta Post.

Indonesian military commander General Moeldoko has called for an investigation into the incident.

In the late 1990s and mid 2000s, a string of fatal plane crashes inIndonesia was blamed on the US military embargo put in place because of human rights abuses perpetrated in East Timor.

The embargo forced the Indonesian military to seek spare parts for its hardware elsewhere and fly planes that were in less than ideal conditions.

It was lifted a decade ago and Indonesian aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said the air force had toughened standards since 2005: We don’t have an arms embargo so why is there a crash?” he said.

“The hangars are full with those [aircraft] that are not airworthy... The ones that are flying have to be kept airworthy. The air force is pretty strict about it now, as compared to 10 years ago.”

No details have been released regarding whether mechanical or human error led to the crash, but a witness said the plane was emitting smoke from at least one of its engines.

In 2009, an Indonesian air force Hercules hit four houses before skidding into a rice field killing 95 people on board and two on the ground. Last December, an Airbus A320 run by AirAsia crashed on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.