INDONESIA-MILITARY/COFFINS Indonesia readies coffins as officials struggle to identify plane crash bodies

Record ID: 148761

  • Title: INDONESIA-MILITARY/COFFINS Indonesia readies coffins as officials struggle to identify plane crash bodies
  • Date: 1st July 2015
  • Summary: MEDAN, NORTH SUMATRA PROVINCE, INDONESIA (JULY 1, 2015) (REUTERS) AMBULANCE ARRIVING, REVERSING TOWARDS BUILDING VARIOUS OF COFFINS OUTSIDE POST-MORTEM OUTPOST VARIOUS COFFINS BEING NAMED ARMY RESCUERS CARRYING COFFIN OUT OF BUILDING ARMY RESCUERS PUTTING COFFIN INSIDE AMBULANCE DIDIET DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) NORTH SUMATRA HEAD OF DISASTER VICTIMS I
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAACJQHKJM9LMDDPLK62E7C1QZN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Indonesian rescuers and the country's Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) unit worked around the clock on Wednesday (July 1) to finish finding and identifying victims of a military transport plane crash in Medan.
    The Hercules C-130B aircraft, which went into service half a century ago, was carrying 122 people when it ploughed into a residential area in the city of Medan shortly after taking off from an airbase. The incident throws a renewed spotlight on Indonesia's woeful air safety record.
    A military spokesman said 135 people were confirmed dead, including all those on board the plane. The MetroTV news channel said at least 141 bodies had been brought to a nearby hospital, indicating around 20 people were killed on the ground.
    At local government hospital Adam Malik on Wednesday, the country's DVI unit were working to identify the dead.
    "The identification is still ongoing. There are 141 body bags and we are doing the identification one by one. We are doing our best, but I haven't got the latest data yet because the identification process itself is still ongoing," said Didiet, North Sumatra's Head of DVI.
    The identification process has not been easy, especially as many of the victims were badly burnt in the cash.
    "We encountered some difficulties in identification since the bodies were partly burnt. That being said, it is rather difficult to identify them with fingerprints. We are getting help from ontology forensics and we also take DNA samples from the bodies," Didiet added.
    Flights also began on Wednesday to send the bodies of the already identified victims to their hometowns.
    This week's crash could bring pressure on the president to spend more on modernising the air force. According to the Aviation Safety Network, 10 fatal crashes involving Indonesian military or police aircraft have occurred over the last decade.
    Although Indonesia accounted for nearly one-fifth of defence spending by Southeast Asian countries last year, as a percentage of GDP the amount was the lowest in the region at 0.8 percent, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
    Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who took office last year, has said he plans to double military spending to $15 billion by 2020.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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