Medan plane crash

[soren]

The plane crashed within a couple of kilometers from where I live, but when I went to see what was going on, an hour or so later, the streets were blocked off and there were bad traffic jams everywhere, and though I probably could have used 'white privelege' and NGO credentials to get in to the disaster area, I probably would not have been useful to anyone and the Indonesian press has taken some fabulous video... I am haunted by the image of a burning becak. I wish I had taken a pic like that myself.

The most notable victim was an acquaintance of mine, Provincial Governer Rizal Nurdin. He seemed to be a good person, well liked by most everybody, and was a good karaoke singer and dancer. Here are some pics of him this spring:


Belting out a traditional dangdut tune at the UN's NRG4SD meeting


Trying to help Erin Brockovitch learn how to dance

Anyway, it is a kind of sad thing, and it is very hard to get around the city today.

[svizzerams]

...so much trouble in the world....sorry to hear this news, soren.

[Pam]

I am sorry to hear that Soren. There are so many bad people out there it is sad when its the nice ones who die.

[Royal]

Accident description

Status: Preliminary
Date: 05 SEP 2005
Time: 09:40
Type: Boeing 737-230
Operator: Mandala Airlines
Registration: PK-RIM
Msn / C/n: 22136/783
Year built: 1981
Crew: 5 fatalities / 5 on board
Passengers: 106 fatalities / 112 on board
Total: 111 fatalities / 117 on board
Ground casualties: 30 fatalities
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: near Medan (Indonesia)
Phase: Initial Climb (ICL)
Nature: Domestic Passenger
Departure airport: Medan-Polonia Airport (MES)
Destination airport: Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)
Flightnumber: 091
Narrative:
Crashed in a residantial area 500 metres past the runway. The number of fatalities is uncertain. Six or ten passengers are reported to have survived while 30 persons on the ground are said to have been killed.
Weater around the time of the accident (02:40 UTC) was: WIMM 050300Z 15006KT 5000 SCT016 30/25 Q1008 NOSIG=.
Medan-Polonia has a single 2900 x 45 meters asphalt runway (05/23).

_________________


September 05, 2005, 16:07 gmt

Residents and rescue workers sift through the wreckage looking for survivors

MEDAN, Indonesia (AFP) - Burned bodies lay strewn among the scorched and mangled wreckage of the Mandala Airlines plane which crashed in a busy avenue in the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses said.
Burned bodies lay strewn among the scorched and mangled wreckage of the Mandala Airlines plane which crashed in a busy avenue in the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses said.
Some 30 houses were damaged and gutted by fire after the Boeing 737-200 crashed on Monday shortly after taking off for a return flight to Jakarta in the morning.

Debris from the wreckage and at least five burned vehicles littered the usually busy main avenue bordering Medan's Polonia airport.
"I immediately went there when I heard of the accident and I could still see plenty of burned bodies littering the street," said local resident Rudi Gurusinga.

He said many of the victims were passengers of several public minibuses.
At least 137 bodies have been found from the crash so far, hospital officials said. The airplane only had 112 passengers and a crew of five.

Syarifuddin, a local police auxiliary, told AFP 11 local residents were reported to have died in the incident and agreed many of the victims on the ground were minibus passengers. Several were hit by parts of the airplane as it crashed.
Heriansyah, a coordinator of the Medan chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross, said "we estimate there are still bodies under the wreckage".

He and some 10 other Red Cross volunteers were awaiting the resumption of search and rescue work that had been halted shortly before dusk.
In front his heavily damaged grocery store, shopkeeper Daniel assessed his losses.
"One of the shop attendants is still missing.... my two young children are in critical condition and my wife has to undergo surgery," Daniel said, adding he was out on business when the plane hit the building.

Some residents lingering at the edge of the crash site said the plane first hit the grocery shop before hitting other two-storey shops on the other side of the avenue.
At least two of the shops were damaged by fire and were now roofless.

"The airplane's wheel struck one of the tall signal lamps inside the airport," said Rizal, a 19-year-old high school student who witnessed the crash.
At the Adam Malik hospital, the nearest to the airport, families of victims, handkerchiefs covering their mouths and noses, checked charred bodies laid on the floor of a large room to look for their missing relatives.
So far only seven had been identified from ID cards and other possessions found on them.
Outside in the yard, other families comforted each other waiting for news of their missing kin.

A heavy tropical downpour doused the fires caused by the crash and finally drove off most of the thousands of curious onlookers who had thronged to the crash site.
Damaged streetlights were not functioning and the electricity supply for the area was also cut following the crash, leaving the area dark after dusk and helping clear the area of onlookers.
The only illumination came from a tow truck light aimed at one of the largest pieces of wreckage sitting in the middle of the avenue.
Inside the airport, one of the jet's engines lay on a grassy expanse not far from the end of the runway and the torn wire fence of the airport.

Hundreds of people still gawked at the fallen engine part as nearby, torn air traffic signs and lamps marked the trail up to the mangled fence left by the ill-fated plane.
Soldiers and police prevented the crowd from approaching too close to any large remaining parts of the aircraft.

[Alessandro]

Another Boeing down, the last 8 crashes with +100 dead have been either Boeings or Boeing owned planes. 6 B737s, 1 MD-80 and 1 B727, is this a coincidence or the fact that the B737 is the
most common passenger plane?