At Least 116 Feared Dead in Indonesia Military Plane Crash Tuesday June 30,2015

 

At least 116 people were killed Tuesday June 30,2015  when an Indonesian air force transport plane crashed into a major city shortly after take-off and exploded in a fireball

Buildings were left in ruins and cars reduced to flaming wrecks when the Hercules C-130 came down in a residential area of Medan, a city of two million on the island of Sumatra.

Air force chief Agus Supriatna said the manifest showed there were 113 people on board the plane - 12 crew and 101 passengers - when it crashed

Many passengers were likely to be family members of servicemen and women, said a spokesman for Medan airbase from where the plane departed.

Search and rescue officials also said that three people were killed on the ground when the 51-year-old plane went down near a newly built residential area, hitting a massage parlour and a small hotel.

Police said rescuers were still trying to get into the ruined massage parlour, a three-storey building, and they did not know whether there were people inside.

A rescue operation swung into action following the crash, with ambulances ferrying bodies from the site, and crowds of anxious people gathering around a police cordon to view the smouldering wreckage.

So far 84 bodies had been pulled from the debris and brought to a hospital in Medan, the hospital said