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Indonesia plane crash: children, paying passengers among 141 dead on 'old' air force carrier

Air force transport carrying military personnel and their families plowed into a residential neighborhood, killing dozens.

As the death toll continues to rise from Tuesday's crash of an army transport plane in Indonesia, reaching 141 as of Wednesday morning, the country's politicians and military leaders are facing uncomfortable questions as to why anyone was allowed on the 50-year-old aircraft, let alone children and paying passengers.

"It was an old aircraft, already 50 years, but it was about to undergo a retrofit," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said shortly after the crash, according to the Jakarta Post.

The American-manufactured C-130 Hercules cargo plane crashed just two minutes after takeoff on Tuesday morning, killing everyone on board and several dozen people on the ground.

Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke streaming from the aircraft in the moments before it smashed into a residential block shops and homes in the city of Medan, the Associated Press reported. The pilot, identified by the Jakarta Post as Capt. Sandhy Permana Alumni, radioed the control tower seconds before the crash saying that he needed to return to the airport because of engine trouble, according to the AP.

Officials say the death toll is likely to rise in a military plane crash in northern Indonesia. (Reuters)
As details of the deadly crash have emerged, the death toll has risen exponentially, raising questions about the Indonesian air force's reliability.

At first, the air force reported only that the plane had 12 crew members when it crashed. But Indonesian officials repeatedly raised the numbers of passengers, from five to 20 to 37 to its current tally of at least 141, fueling concerns about lax controls and raising the possibility that paying passengers were improperly allowed aboard the aging plane.

Air force spokesperson Dwi Bandarmanto admitted on Wednesday that there had been 122 passengers in addition to the 12 crew.

"We had the list of the manifest and it was changing a lot," he told the Guardian. "There was some children who were not named on the manifest, maybe five to eight children."

Bandarmanto said the majority of those on board belonged to military families, but he also confirmed that the government is investigating whether the crew broke regulations by allowing others to purchase spots aboard the plane.

Hitching rides on military planes is common in the archipelago of over 17,000 islands, although the air force has recently promised to crack down on the practice, according to the Guardian.

Military family members, however, are allowed to board air force flights for free with special permission.

Seventeen-year-old Reni Sihotang and his older brother Ruly were among the military family members feared dead in the crash. They were allowed to fly for free since their eldest brother, Andi Paulus Sihotang, is a first lieutenant.

"It is not the first time we joined a Hercules flight," said their father, Sahala Sihotang, according to the Jakarta Post. He added that his eldest son now blames himself for the death of his siblings.

The death toll is fast approaching the grim tally of 162 set in December when an AirAsia flight crashed on its way from Indonesia to Singapore.


Security forces and rescue teams examine the wreckage of an Indonesian military C-130 Hercules transport plane after it crashed into a residential area in the North Sumatra city of Medan, Indonesia, June 30, 2015. At least 30 people were killed when the military transport plane crashed into a residential area two minutes after take-off in northern Indonesia on Tuesday, putting a fresh spotlight on the country's woeful air safety record. REUTERS/Roni Bintang TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Indonesia's aging military fleet has proved particularly dangerous. Ten air force or police planes have crashed in the past decade, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

Several previous crashes have involved the same type of plane that went down on Tuesday. In 2009, another American-made Hercules carrier careened into a clutch of houses before crashing in a rice field, killing 95 passengers and two people on the ground.

In 2001, another Hercules overshot its runway, colliding an airport perimeter fence and bursting into flames.

The Hercules that crashed on Tuesday was made in the United States in 1964, the Jakarta Post reported. At the time, Indonesia was a close American ally in the fight against communism. Following a failed leftist coup attempt in 1965, the Indonesian military carried out a bloody purge of suspected communists, with the death roll reaching an estimated 500,000.

Indonesia first received Hercules airplanes from the U.S. government in 1958 in exchange for CIA pilot Allan Pope, who had been arrested for helping rebels, the Jakarta Post reported.

As anger rose over the age of the plane involved in Tuesday's crash, Indonesian leaders argued that the tragedy demonstrated a need to modernize the country's air force.

"The accident serves as a red light for the military, which urgently needs to upgrade its equipment," said the Indonesian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mahfudz Siddiq on Tuesday.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo demanded an inspection of the country's remaining C-130s, telling reporters on Wednesday that the crash gave the country the "momentum" needed to update its military.

"I have also instructed the Minister of Defense and Commander in Chief to undertake a fundamental overhaul of the management of military defense equipment," Widodo said, according to the Guardian. "The most important procurement should be directed to the independence of the defense industry so that we can fully control the readiness of defense equipment.

"The evacuation of victims from the Hercules plane must be prioritised. Then there must be an evaluation of the age of planes and defense systems," he tweeted. "Hopefully, we can stay away from disasters."

Parliament member Supiadin Aries Saputra, whose NasDem Party is aligned with Widodo's, called on the government to stop buying used military equipment from other countries in order to prevent more deadly accidents, according to the Jakarta Post.

The cause of Tuesday's crash is still unclear, however.

"There are many possible causes," said military expert Susaningtyas Nefo Handayani Kertopati, according to the Post. "Apart from the age of the airplane, human error could have caused the incident. It is possible that the pilot could not control either the field or the aircraft."

President Widodo is scheduled to visit the crash site on Wednesday.