INDONESIA:One hundred and eighteen people made a dramatic escape from an airliner in Indonesia yesterday after it crashed on landing and was wrapped in flames, killing 22 passengers trapped inside.
Survivors from the latest in Indonesia's string of transport accidents said the Garuda Boeing 737-400 was already on fire as it came in too fast at Java's Yogyakarta airport. The flight veered off the runway and crashed through a perimeter fence, coming to halt in a rice paddy. Many of the 140 passengers and crew were able to scramble out through the emergency exits before the aircraft was engulfed in a fireball, which happened in minutes.
Airport fire and rescue staff pulled some of the injured, including five Australians, to safety as the flames raged. Another five Australian officials and journalists - in the country for a visit by their foreign minister - were among the missing.
The Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is under mounting pressure over a spate of aircraft and ferry disasters, ordered investigators to look for signs of mechanical failure, human error or sabotage. The aircraft's flight recorder has already been found.
A freelance Australian television cameraman, Wayan Sukarda, who was among the passengers, filmed chaotic scenes of passengers escaping the aircraft amid plumes of dense black smoke. Firefighters took two hours to bring the blaze under control.
Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, was not aboard the aircraft, but had been due to travel to the central Javanese city by a military flight later to deliver a talk to a Muslim-run university. He visited the crash scene and said that two of the Australians had suffered serious injuries. Medical teams from Darwin were sent to help treat the victims, many of whom suffered severe burns.
Passengers on the hour-long, early morning flight from Jakarta said they experienced severe turbulence and smelled smoke as it was about to touch down. Airport officials saw a trail of flame from the plane's nose-wheel compartment. The aircraft shook violently as it made a hard landing. One of the engines and parts of the undercarriage sheared off as it careered off the runway. Some witnesses said a tyre blew on landing.
"I thought it was all over for me," said a Japanese passenger, Shinjo Ito, who escaped out of the back of the burning fuselage, adding that the aircraft "bounced and plummeted into a rice paddy".
"Some passengers wanted to get their hand luggage. I cried to them, 'Get out, get out'," Din Syamsudin (48), chief of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, told Radio Elshinta. "It was dark. I finally found the emergency exit. The plane was full of smoke. I managed to get down."
Another Indonesian 737-400 aircraft, operated by Adam Air, crashed into the sea while travelling between Surabaya City and Manado, on Sulawesi island, on New Year's Day, with the loss of 102 passengers and crew. - (Guardian service)