Death toll unclear in Indonesia air crash

Up to 47 people were unaccounted for after the Lion Air plane, with 163 on board, skidded off a runway in heavy rain. Picture / Reuters

SOLO - Rescue teams yesterday searched areas around an airfield in central Indonesia for survivors of a plane crash that police said killed at least 31 people and left 47 unaccounted for.

The McDonnell-Douglas MD-82, operated by budget domestic carrier Lion Air and carrying 163 passengers and crew, crashed in Solo city early yesterday as it landed in heavy rain after a flight from Jakarta.

Other sources were giving different casualty numbers. A board posted at the Solo Airport said 25 were dead and 23 unaccounted for.

But Bambang, a police duty officer in the Central Java province, said 29 passengers and two crew members were dead, while a further 43 people on the plane had been seriously injured and 32 had light injuries. Ten were known to be unhurt, he said.

Authorities were still trying to find the remaining passengers, Bambang said.

"We found bones and chunks of flesh in the area of the crash. We can't tell if [the unaccounted for are] dead or not at this stage.

"We're having difficulties in identifying the bodies because the data from the manifest and some of the identities that we found did not match."

At least one wing ripped off the plane, which came to rest in a cemetery surrounded by rice fields after skidding off the runway, witnesses said. The fuselage was badly damaged.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the site while soldiers and rescue officials scoured the area.

"We have evacuated the pilot's body," said an official on the ground.

Officials said the dead and injured had been taken to five hospitals in the city, which lies in the heart of Indonesia's main island of Java.

Among the dead was a legislator from Indonesia's 550-member national Parliament, local media said.

Survivors said the accident happened without warning.

"At the time the plane had landed and I was about to unbuckle my seat belt," said passenger Devi Setiabakti. "Suddenly the lights went out and the plane lurched forward and went off the runway.

"From what I saw, those who died were at the front of the plane."

Lion Air is a popular local budget carrier, one of many to spring up in Indonesia in recent years.

An airline executive q said the Government's transportation safety board would investigate the crash.

- REUTERS