Jakarta: Police officials and rescue teams looking for the Indonesian jetliner - that went missing two days ago over the country’s Sulawesi island – on Tuesday found its smoldering wreckage in a mountainous region in Polewali.
The officials declared the at least 90 of the 102 people on board were killed in the crash. "The plane is destroyed and many bodies are around there," local police Chief Col. Genot Hariyanto was quoted by news agencies as saying.
Air force rear commander Eddy Suyanto and the local mayor of Sulawesi Ali Bahal confirmed to the el-Shinta radio station that the plane had crashed and that at least 90 people were feared killed.
However, there was no word on the fate of the remaining 12 people on board the Boeing 737-400.
The plane had last sent out a distress signal on Monday before losing contact with the ATC, Indonesia's transport minister told an Indonesian radio program.
An official with the airline, Adam Air was quoted by news agencies as saying that the plane was carrying 96 passengers and six crew members.
Adam Air said it was setting up an information center for families of passengers.
The airline said the plane was heading to Manado on Sulawesi island. It had originated in Jakarta with a stopover in Surabaya, on Java Island.
Meanwhile, hundreds of anxious relatives gathered at the airport in Manado seeking information about the missing.
For many like 25-year-old Justin Tumurang, who was at the airport to pick up her twin sister, the wait seemed endless. "Being a twin, we share almost every feeling. I felt something was not right, and it grew worse. Now I feel pain," she was quoted as saying by news agency Associated Press.
The 17-year-old plane carried six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children. Contact was lost about an hour before it was due to land amid very bad weather, national aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said late yesterday.
Last year, one of its jetliners lost all communication and navigation systems for four hours during a flight between the Indonesian capital Jakarta and Makassar on Sulawesi Island forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.
(With agency inputs)
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