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3rd LD: Death toll from crashed Indonesian military plane rises to 30

Xinhua, June 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 30 bodies including five crews have been sent to Adam Malik hospital from the crash site in downtown area in Indonesia's North Sumatra capital city of Medan.

A Hercules C-130 plane has crashed into a residential area of Medan city in Sumatra on Tuesday.

TV footages showed that those bodies arrived in the hospital in several batches with ambulances that carried body bags.

Two injured people who suffered severe burn wounds were also evacuated to the hospital, according to the report.

Indonesian military has set up a team to investigate the crash of C-130 Hercules in downtown area of North Sumatra province's capital city of Medan on Tuesday at noon.

"Indonesian military (TNI) immediately set up an investigation team to find out the reason of the crash," Head of TNI Central Information section (Kapuspen) Fuad Basya said.

According to Indonesian Air Forces Commander Air Marshall Agus Supriatna, 12 military personnel was onboard the ill-fated plane that crashed a in housing compound located in downtown area.

He said that the pilot of the crashed C-130 plane previously asked an RTB (Return to Base) request to officials shortly after took off from Polonia airport.

"The plane banked to the right before it eventually crashed. A trouble has occurred in the plane. It was proved from the pilot's RTB request," Agus said in an interview with a local TV station adding that the crashed plane was manufactured in 1964.

A witness said that the plane exploded in the midair before crashed to the ground in a housing compound located in Jl. Jamin Ginting. The TV footages showed that black smoke soared into the air above the mangled structure of the crashed plane.

The crashed plane was in a logistic transport mission to Tanjung Pinang, departed from air forces base of Suwondo in East Java on 11.48 a.m. local time.

Indonesia operates 28 C-130 Hercules military cargo planes, making it the largest Hercules plane operator in the southern hemisphere. Endi