No survivors from Indonesia plane crash

GlobalPost

None of the 18 people onboard an Indonesia plane that crashed on Sumatra island have survived.

After two difficult days to reach the remote jungle site, officials found that all 14 passengers and four crew had died in the crash which occurred last Thursday, the Herald Sun reports.

There were four children among the passengers.

There had been hopes that some people may be alive because aerial shots of the plane showed that its main cabin was largely intact.

Also, a victim's mother said her daughter called her after the crash.

National search and rescue operations head Sunarbowo Sandi announced, "We received a radio response from our team on the ground that all 18 people on the plane had died. The passengers were still in their seats. A team is trying to cut through the aircraft and retrieve the bodies."

Dozens of relatives gathered in Bohorok, North Sumatra, near where the Nusantara Buana Air Casa 212 went down.

They let out cries of despair. Some passed out and were taken away on stretchers, while others lambasted the government for its slow response, the Herald Sun reports.

The Herald Sun reports:

Reike Andriani, whose relatives on board the aircraft included a 20-month-old baby, said that she was angered by the delayed rescue attempts.

"Why did this process take so long? They just kept saying that they would reach there soon, and they kept blaming the weather," she said.

For two days, rescuers tried to reach the crash location by foot and by helicopter, but rough terrain, strong winds and heavy cloud and rain forced three teams traveling by land and several helicopters to return to the city of Medan.

The Indonesian Transport Association said that the rescue teams followed standard procedures and did their best given the "impossible" conditions.

The turboprop plane took off from Medan on Thursday morning for the nearby province of Aceh.

Soon after takeoff, it sent a distress signal and crashed in a mountainous area north-west of Medan.

An emergency helipad has been built to enable the bodies to be taken to Medan.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and has a poor aviation safety record, BBC reports.

In May, 27 people died when a passenger plane crashed into the sea off the eastern province of West Papua, it reports.

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