Crashed Indonesia jet may have had fuel problem

MEDAN, Indonesia - A preliminary probe into the crash of an Indonesian airliner that killed 149 people has found a fuel problem with one of the plane's engines, a transport safety official said on Wednesday.

Setyo Rahardjo, head of the National Transport Safety Committee, told Reuters that investigators had found a fault in one of two engines on the Boeing 737-200, which slammed into a crowded neighbourhood in the city of Medan on Monday.

His comments came as authorities prepared a mass funeral for 57 victims whose bodies were too charred to identify. They will be buried in a field on Wednesday where the remains of victims from two previous air crashes near Indonesia's third biggest city also lie.

"During our preliminary investigation we have found a fuel problem. To be exact it was on the fan blade, but it needs to be noted that the findings are preliminary and at this stage we cannot conclude engine failure as the cause," Rahardjo said.

"Visually it looks like there was a problem, but again we need to investigate it further."

Rahardjo did not say which engine he was referring to. The plane's black box and flight recorder are still being examined and officials have said they will be sent overseas.

The disaster on Monday killed 149 people, 102 of them on board the Mandala Airlines flight and 47 others on the ground when the plane burst into flames shortly after take-off.

Fifteen passengers in the tail section survived.

Commercial aircraft are designed to cope with the failure of one engine on take off. Its remaining engines, even if there is only one, should have enough power to get the plane to a safe flying speed before returning to the runway.

But a fuel problem might shut down all engines.

Some local media have said one of the 24-year-old plane's engines was found in the airport's grounds. The plane, bound for Jakarta, came down 500 metres from the runway.

In recent years soaring fuel prices have hit Indonesia's airlines hard, while the growth of budget carriers has brought pressure to keep fares down. Some smaller companies have gone out of business and others have been forced to cut services.

But local airline safety experts have largely dismissed speculation that competition has hurt airline maintenance.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an investigation into aviation safety.

Officials said the mass burial would take place in a field not far from Medan's airport.

Among those already buried there are unidentified victims from Indonesia's worst air accident, when a Garuda Airbus A-300B4 crashed in a mountainous area near Medan in September 1997, killing all 222 passengers and 12 crew.

Religious custom in predominantly Muslim Indonesia calls for quick burials of the dead.

Mandala Airlines is one of Indonesia's oldest private carriers, operating a number of Boeing 737s. The doomed aircraft was fit for eight more years of flying, Mandala has said.

Medan lies 1425km northwest of Jakarta on Sumatra island.

- REUTERS