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Indonesia's crashed plane suffers from engine failure: Air forces chief

Xinhua, July 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesian Air Forces Commander Air Marshall Agus Supriatna said on Thursday that an engine failure at the right wing caused the crash of the ill-fated C-130 Hercules transport plane on Tuesday noon.

Agus said that allegation on right engine failure came up from the fact that the plane banked to the right and failed to ascend like in a normal flight.

"It is alleged that the engine at the right wing was in trouble, inactive. The propeller stopped (from running)," Agus told reporters, conveying the preliminary findings of investigation into the plane crash in Soewondo Air Forces Base, Medan North Sumatra.

"As the plane has yet to ascend to its optimum airborne altitude, the plane eventually descended, rolled over and crashed on the ground," Agus added.

He added that the engine failure in the crashed plane was noticed from the position of propellers. Agus added that the pilot was aware of the malfunction occurred in the plane, which made him requested Return To Base (RTB) procedure, but he did not make it to the Soewondo airport where it took off two minutes earlier.

Meanwhile, Hisar Turnip, an official at Medan chapter Search and Rescued Agency (Basarnas) said that joint search team monitoring the crash site discovered body parts in the location. Those body part have already transferred to Adam Malik hospital that stores casualties from the crash.

"We are now assigned to monitor the crash site. No order has been issued by the Air Forces to totally stop search and evacuation process," Hisar told Xinhua by phone.

The plane wreckages have been removed to Soewondo air forces base for further investigation. A statement issued by the air forces said that the crashed C-130 Hercules plane was boarded by 110 passengers and 12 crews. All of them were declared deceased in the crash.

Some people on the ground were believed also killed in the crash. Local media put the death toll at at least 141 people.

An official at Adam Malik Sairi Saragih told Xinhua that the hospital received 3 more body bags, and thus the total of received body bags to 146 by 1.00 p.m. Thursday.

She added that 75 bodies have been identified by the police's Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, already handed over to the air forces which would transfer them to airports they departed from.

She said the identification process is now facing a problem with bodies and part bodies that started to decompose, making the DNA matching process more difficult to be conducted.

"But we will continue until all of those bodies are identified, " Sairi told Xinhua.

The crashed plane was on its mission to transport people and military logistic to Natuna island. It was manufactured in 1964, serving the Air Forces' Squadron 32 based in Malang, East Java. Endi