Bad weather a factor as 13 killed in Indonesian military plane crash in Papua
The fatal incident is the latest for Indonesia’s accident-prone military
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Thirteen people have died after an Indonesian military transport plane crashed in the east of the country on Sunday, officials said, marking yet another air accident for the armed forces.
The Hercules C-130 plane took off from Timika city in Papua province carrying 12 crew and one passenger, but came down in a remote mountainous region shortly before its scheduled landing, officials said.
Bad weather and low clouds in Wamena, the capital of the mountainous district of Jayawijaya, were believed to be factors in the crash, deputy air force chief of staff Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja told a news conference.
“The tower in Wamena spotted the plane, but it was not certain that the plane saw the runway,” he said. He did not rule out that the plane hit a mountain.
The plane took off from Timika at 5:35 a.m. and crashed about four minutes before it was scheduled to land in Wamena.
Rescuers located the plane debris soon after. All 13 bodies have been recovered according to the air force.
The fatal incident is the latest for Indonesia’s accident-prone military.
In November an army helicopter accident killed three on Borneo, while another three died when a military chopper went into a home in Central Java in July.
Some 12 people were killed in March when another military helicopter went down in bad weather on Sulawesi in central Indonesia.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
