– Buildings ruined, cars destroyed –
Rescuers were Wednesday continuing to clear debris, which spread over a large area, helped by two earthmovers, as hundreds looked on.
One end of a three-storey building had been left in ruins, with the walls blown away, leaving only the soot-blackened interior visible. An overturned, destroyed car could also be seen among the debris.
Tuesday’s accident was the sixth deadly crash involving an Indonesian air force plane in the past decade, according to the Aviation Safety Network, and prompted Indonesian President Joko Widodo to call for an overhaul of the military’s ageing equipment.
“I have ordered the defence minister and the armed forces chief to conduct a fundamental overhaul of the management of the military’s defence equipment,” he said.
Indonesia also has a poor civil aviation safety record – the latest disaster came just six months after an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board.
Officials were working to identify the victims so far recovered, with police saying that so far 62 people had been identified.
Most of those were from the armed forces as they could be easily recognised from their uniforms, and officials were now working to identify others.
It is not clear what caused the crash but the aircraft asked to turn back just after take-off, and air force chief Agus Supriatna has said engine trouble may be to blame.
However he also insisted the ageing aircraft was in good condition.
The plane took off at 12:08pm (0508 GMT) from the airbase and crashed in the city about two minutes later, about five kilometres (three miles) from the base, according to the military.
Medan is the biggest Indonesian city outside the main island of Java and a major economic centre.
It was the second time in a decade that the city has suffered a fatal plane accident. A Mandala Airlines domestic flight crashed shortly after take-off in 2005, killing at least 150 including passengers, crew and people on the ground.
That crash happened on the same street as Tuesday’s disaster – Jalan Jiman Ginting.
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