45 bodies found from wreck of Russian jet
12 May 2012 12:20 PM IST
Indonesian searchers with body bags and hoists scaled a steep volcano on Friday to retrieve at least 45 bodies spread over the jungly terrain where a Russian jet crashed during a sales flight. The crews were using climbing equipment to ascend the near-vertical face of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano south of Jakarta, and were believed to be about 200 metres from reaching the first bodies, authorities said.
All aboard the Sukhoi Superjet 100 were killed, authorities said yesterday, a day after the plane slammed into the mountain during a flight that was meant to spur international sales of Russia's first post-Soviet civilian jet.
The military commander of the mission said that one team was climbing up from the foot of the mountain, while another was going down from the top.
The difficult terrain over the dormant volcano, which juts more than 2,200 metres into the air and is most days shrouded in thick fog, has been an extreme challenge to the searchers.
The mist had stopped helicopters from getting close to the area, since a chopper pilot first spotted the wreckage yesterday morning, authorities said.
‘The plane crashed into the mountain and slid 250 metres down, to 1,800 metres,’ said the commander, Colonel Anton Mukti Putranto.
The twin-engine Superjet Wednesday descended to 1,800 metres before vanishing from radar screens, 50 minutes into what was meant to be a short flight to show off its capabilities to prospective airline buyers.
Ketut Parwa, search and rescue agency chief for the capital Jakarta, said victims would be placed into body bags, hoisted up the mountain, then carried to ambulances a long distance away on foot.
He said helicopters would then fly the bodies to the capital's Halim Perdanakusuma military airport, where authorities have set up a forensics post to identify victims through DNA samples taken from relatives.
The company representing Sukhoi in Indonesia, Trimarga Rekatama, originally said 50 passengers were on board but yesterday revised the number to 45. Local rescue officials said the plane was carrying 46 people.
Those aboard were mostly Indonesian aviation representatives, but there were also eight Russians - four of them crew and four Sukhoi employees - plus an American and a Frenchman, officials said.
STEWARDESS FIRED FOR OFFENSIVE TWEET
Moscow: A stewardess from Russia's largest airline Aeroflot has been fired after she left a derogatory comment on Twitter about the fatal crash of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 in Indonesia. The flight attendant named Ekaterina Solovyova, wrote on her Twitter page: 'Huh? Did a Superjet crash? Hahaha! This aircraft sucks, it's a pity it wasn't in Aeroflot, that would be one less.'
Aeroflot owns six Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes similar to the one which crashed into a steep mountainside at Mount Salak during a demonstration flight on Wednesday. Other Twitter users took a screenshot and sent a complaint to Aeroflot.
Solovyova removed her comments, and then deleted all her pages in social networks, but the airline sacked her.
All aboard the Sukhoi Superjet 100 were killed, authorities said yesterday, a day after the plane slammed into the mountain during a flight that was meant to spur international sales of Russia's first post-Soviet civilian jet.
The military commander of the mission said that one team was climbing up from the foot of the mountain, while another was going down from the top.
The difficult terrain over the dormant volcano, which juts more than 2,200 metres into the air and is most days shrouded in thick fog, has been an extreme challenge to the searchers.
The mist had stopped helicopters from getting close to the area, since a chopper pilot first spotted the wreckage yesterday morning, authorities said.
‘The plane crashed into the mountain and slid 250 metres down, to 1,800 metres,’ said the commander, Colonel Anton Mukti Putranto.
The twin-engine Superjet Wednesday descended to 1,800 metres before vanishing from radar screens, 50 minutes into what was meant to be a short flight to show off its capabilities to prospective airline buyers.
Ketut Parwa, search and rescue agency chief for the capital Jakarta, said victims would be placed into body bags, hoisted up the mountain, then carried to ambulances a long distance away on foot.
He said helicopters would then fly the bodies to the capital's Halim Perdanakusuma military airport, where authorities have set up a forensics post to identify victims through DNA samples taken from relatives.
The company representing Sukhoi in Indonesia, Trimarga Rekatama, originally said 50 passengers were on board but yesterday revised the number to 45. Local rescue officials said the plane was carrying 46 people.
Those aboard were mostly Indonesian aviation representatives, but there were also eight Russians - four of them crew and four Sukhoi employees - plus an American and a Frenchman, officials said.
STEWARDESS FIRED FOR OFFENSIVE TWEET
Moscow: A stewardess from Russia's largest airline Aeroflot has been fired after she left a derogatory comment on Twitter about the fatal crash of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 in Indonesia. The flight attendant named Ekaterina Solovyova, wrote on her Twitter page: 'Huh? Did a Superjet crash? Hahaha! This aircraft sucks, it's a pity it wasn't in Aeroflot, that would be one less.'
Aeroflot owns six Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes similar to the one which crashed into a steep mountainside at Mount Salak during a demonstration flight on Wednesday. Other Twitter users took a screenshot and sent a complaint to Aeroflot.
Solovyova removed her comments, and then deleted all her pages in social networks, but the airline sacked her.
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