Crashed Russian plane found in Indonesia

10/05/2012| IslamWeb

A helicopter searching a mountain south of the Indonesian capital has found the wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi plane which disappeared on Wednesday with at least 47 people onboard, the government has said.

The Indonesian military confirmed that the wreckage had been found on Thursday and said teams were working up Mount Salak, a dormant volcano more than 2,100 meters high, Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reported from Jakarta.

"So far there is no sign of any life on that mountain as far as we know," our correspondent said. "It is still unclear at the moment what caused the crash."

"All we know is that the pilot asked to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 to 1,800 metres) just before they lost contact, so it is a big question as to why the pilot was asking to descend in this mountainous area, and why did the airport tower in Jakarta grant him permission to descend."

Indonesia's president held a press conference earlier, stating a thorough investigation must be carried out into the cause of the crash.

The wreckage was spotted from a helicopter flying over a mountain range in the Bogor district near Jakarta, Mayor Ali Umri Lubis, a member of the military rescue team, told local TV.

Rescuers had resumed their search at first light on Thursday for the plane, which went missing during a demonstration flight early on Wednesday.

The Superjet 100 plane was carrying Indonesian businessmen, Russian embassy officials and journalists. Dimitry Solodov from the embassy said there were eight Russians on board, including pilots and technicians.

"The flight should have lasted just 30 minutes in the area around Jakarta, but it never returned," Vaessen said.

"They [ground control] lost contact after the Russian pilot asked to descend and then they never heard from the plane again.

"This was a brand new plane from Russia. It came into the country just yesterday and took people on board for an earlier test flight this morning. That all went well."

Relatives gather

Relatives of passengers gathered at Jakarta's airport after the disappearance, waiting for information about the missing plane.

Yanny Mariana's eyes welled up with tears as she told reporters that one of her four friends on the flight had called her in panic.

He had earlier told her the plane would fly above the city of Bandung and be back in Jakarta in under an hour.

"But at around 3 pm (0800 GMT) he called me in a panic and I was worried because I knew it shouldn't take that long to fly to Bandung and back," she said.

The Superjet 100 is a new passenger plane built in Russia in a bid to lift its civil aviation industry from a post-Soviet crisis.

The demonstration flight in Indonesia was part of a tour dubbed the "Asian Roadshow" aimed at promoting the aircraft abroad that started May 3 and earlier took in Kazakhstan and Pakistan. It was due to go on to Laos and Vietnam.

The plane is considered crucial to Russia's hopes of becoming a major player in the modern aviation market and improving the image of an industry scarred by frequent crashes of ageing Soviet-era jets.

Indonesian regional carrier PT Sky Aviation had agreed to buy 12 of the planes, with deliveries due to begin in 2012.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

A view of the wreckage of the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft in Mount Salak, West Java province [Reuters]

Aljazeera