Friday, 11 May 2012

Bodies Found After Jet Crashes On Demo Flight

    The wreckage of the Russian aircraft is scattered on the slope of Mount Salak

Search teams have found 12 bodies after a Russian passenger jet crashed into a volcano in Indonesia during a sales demonstration flight.

The rescue teams had to use climbing equipment to scale the steep slopes of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano 5,900ft (1,800m) high, where bodies and debris from the crashed jet are scattered.

                                A forensic team examines dental records from missing passengers

The head of the national search and rescue agency said: "Today we reached the crash site... and we found 12 victims and they were all dead.
"I still don't know the condition of the bodies, but we haven't been able to evacuate them. The bodies are still in body bags."
A rescuer at the scene said: "Some of the bodies looked as if they had slammed against a hard object, but they are identifiable.
"There are no signs they were burnt."
Search teams are also looking for the plane's black boxes to reveal if the plane crash was due to mechanical failure or pilot error.
A criminal investigation was also launched in Moscow to look into possible misconduct during preparations for the flight as well as the plane's technical condition before it left Russia.
The passenger jet crashed on Thursday, killing all 45 people on board, after disappearing from radar screens just 20 minutes after take-off.
Those aboard were mostly Indonesian aviation representatives, but there were also eight Russians, four of them crew and four Sukhoi employees, plus an American and a Frenchman, officials said.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was on a demonstration flight for potential buyers and aviation journalists.
The Sukhoi passenger plane was Russia's first attempt at a post-Soviet civilian jet that it was hoping would compete against Boeing and Airbus.

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