Indonesian plane crash: 142 feared dead

Jakarta: A total of 142 body bags have been taken to the site where an Indonesian military plane crashed on Tuesday in Medan city, officials said on Wednesday.

According to police, as the body bags may contain only parts of the bodies, it is yet unclear how many bodies have been recovered, Xinhua reported.

Earlier, local media reports quoted police officers as saying that 141 bodies have been recovered at the site.

The ill-fated C-130 Hercules plane crashed into downtown of Medan on Tuesday shortly after takeoff.

The Indonesian military said there were 122 people aboard the plane, revising an earlier statement that said 113 people were on board.

Some 59 bodies have been identified from the body bags, said Sairi Saragih, an official at the Adam Malik hospital, adding "eight of those identified bodies have been brought to the airport, to be handed over by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team to their families."

(IANS)