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The Garuda airliner that smashed into a bank and exploded into flames as it ran off the end of the runway at the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta on Wednesday almost certainly landed too fast, expert witnesses have told investigators.
The landing was so hard the jet's front wheels snapped off.
The crash killed 22 and seriously injured many more.
Yesterday severely burned victims were flown to Darwin and one of Australia's top burns experts, Fiona Woods, flew to Indonesia to help treat others.
Among those believed killed are five Australians, including the nation's top counter-terrorism expert and senior diplomatic and aid officials.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is overseeing the crash investigation and victim identification effort by 50 Australian experts and meeting victims and families.
He said Royal Australian Air Force officers among the survivors believed speed was the cause.
"The aircraft came in way too fast, was unable to stop in time, and then it ploughed across the end of the runway, through a road and hit an embankment and a culvert and exploded and ended up in a rice field," he told ABC's Lateline programme from Yogyakarta.
RAAF officer Kyle Quinlan, who was injured in the crash, also told the programme: "I looked out the window on the right-hand side and saw how fast we were coming in. That's when we hit the ground. We've bounced off the tarmac and sort of bounced again, and from there it was just sort of pretty much brace ourselves for the impact."
And Indonesian Air Force First Air Marshall Benyamin Dandel, the commander of the Yogyakarta Airport, told the Detikom website that the Boeing had landed too fast and ran about 300m off the runway.
Australian air crash experts have joined Indonesian counterparts in what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised will be a meticulous investigation, including the possibility of "non-technical" matters - an apparent reference to the possibility of sabotage by terrorists.
But top Australian officials, including Prime Minister John Howard and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, believe the disaster was an accident.
AFP teams are also helping to identify burned bodies, possibly including two of their own senior agents - one of them regional counter-terrorism expert Brice Steele.
Keelty said Steele was one of the AFP's two most senior overseas-based agents. "He has been working in our counter terrorism here [Indonesia]. He is a very accomplished police officer."
The other agent, Mark Scott, was team leader of the AFP's Jakarta-based regional engagement team.
The crash is also feared to have killed two other senior Australian officials - Allison Sudrajat, head of the Australian aid agency AusAID in Indonesia, and Jakarta embassy spokeswoman Liz O'Neill - and Jakarta-based Australian Financial Review correspondent Morgan Mellish. Indonesian officials yesterday told the state news agency Antara they had tentatively identified Mellish from an identity card and O'Neill from jewellery.
O'Neill was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her work after the 2002 Bali bombings, and was a member of the crisis team after the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was bombed. The Australian said she had a baby daughter, Lucinda, born in May last year.
Mellish had booked on another airline because the Garuda flight was full - but at the last moment was offered a spare embassy ticket by O'Neill.
Most of the other victims are believed to be Indonesian. They died when the 737-300 commuter flight from Jakarta burst into flame, trapping crew and passengers in the fuselage.
Many of the survivors suffered serious burns and other injuries, including Sydney Morning Herald journalist Cynthia Banham, flown to Perth and late yesterday reported to be in serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery for burns to more than 50 per cent of her body, broken bones, and other injuries.
Tasmanian businessman Roger Tallboys was flown to Singapore for treatment, and two injured RAAF officers, Quinlan and Michael Hatton, have been flown home.
