Small plane crashes in Indonesia; 18 feared dead
Baku, September 29 (AZERTAC). A small plane carrying 18 people on a local flight in western Indonesia crashed in a mountainous area Thursday, officials said. Search-and-rescue teams were rushing to the scene.
The Spanish-designed CASA C-212 was about halfway through its 30-minute flight between North Sumatra and Aceh provinces when it lost contact with air traffic control, Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.
Minutes later, the turboprop-powered plane sent out a distress signal and then dropped off the Air Force radar, Bonar Hutagaol, an Air Force marshal, told the local station TVOne.
Residents reported it had crashed near their mountainous village of Bahorok and that they'd seen smoke coming from the wreckage, said Supri Sinaga, head of the local search and rescue team.
Four children and 14 adults were on board.
"I saw something unusual, a smoking plane circling very low before it disappeared from my view," Agus, a villager in Langkat district, told TV-One. Like many Indonesians he goes by only one name.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and train crashes to ferry sinkings. Many are blamed on overcrowding and poor safety standards.
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