Sun, Jun 29, 2008
Aircraft Was On Aerial Mapping And Photo Mission
Recovery operations are still underway after an Indonesian
military CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop went down in dense jungle
on the side of a mountain in Indonesia Thursday. The aircraft
disappeared from radar 1503 local time Thursday. Officials stated
the aircraft had departed Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta
on a mission to test a digital mapping camera system.
According to AFP, wreckage was spotted Friday on Salak Mountain,
a rugged, steep slope 25 miles south of the capital city of Jakarta
in the town of Bogor. Due to the remote nature of the site, search
and rescue teams were not able to reach the site until early
Saturday.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of all 18 persons aboard the
aircraft according to search and rescue team head Hadi Tugiman.
Though rescuers built a makeshift helipad near the crash site,
heavy fog blanketing the mountainside prevented helicopters safely
approaching the area.
"We have found all 18 victims," Tugiman said. "Our plan is to
take them out tomorrow (Saturday)... by helicopter."
Air force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said steep and slippery
conditions on the mountain slope further hampered rescue and
recovery efforts. "It's quite difficult to go down and come up," he
said.
Police have said local residents were the first to witness the
aircraft going down into the dense pocket of jungle on the
mountain's slopes. Local villagers reportedly reached the crash
site before it was spotted Friday by an air force aircraft
searching for the flight.
"People living around the Mount Salak area saw a plane flying on
Thursday and then they heard sounds of an explosion," one police
officer in the region said earlier.
Among the passengers were six civilians including three
foreigners from Singapore, India, and England who were employed by
the Singapore-based company Credent Technology, specializing in
high-resolution satellite imagery and laser scanning for
mapping.
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