Bodies of Indonesian plane crash victims to be identified

Jakarta: Indonesian rescuers on Wednesday began transferring to hospital for further identification the bodies of the 54 victims of Sunday's plane crash in Indonesia's Papua province.

Four bodies were transported to the joint operation centre located in Sentani air base in Jayapura, capital of Papua province, from Oksibil by an ATR-42 Trigana Air plane of the same type as the one that smashed against a hillside on Sunday, reported Xinhua.

Head of Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Henry Bambang Soelistyo said the bodies of 49 passengers and five crew-members would be transferred to a hospital in Jayapura.

The ATR-42 turboprop plane, operated by Trigana Air, hit Mount Tangok on Sunday during its flight from Jayapura to Oksibil, 280 km south of the provincial capital.

The search team recovered bodies of all 54 people aboard the plane, along with the blackbox of the aircraft on Tuesday.

The plane was also carrying 6.5 billion rupiah (about $470,000) in cash which was to be handed out to poor families because of lack of banking infrastructure in the mountainous region.

The search teams found the money at the crash site — some of it burned and some in good condition, officials said.

(IANS)