Plane’s engine likely failed before crash: Indonesia

JAKARTA: The Indonesian military plane that crashed into a residential neighbourhood and killed 142 people likely suffered an engine failure, the air force said today, but denied the aircraft was overloaded after claims civilians had paid to get on board.
The Hercules C-130 went down Tuesday in the city of Medan shortly after taking off from a nearby airbase, exploding in a fireball and causing widespread destruction.
Air Vice Marshal Agus Dwi Putranto, an air force operations commander, told reporters initial findings indicated the 51-year-old transport plane had failed to gain enough speed after one of its four engines malfunctioned.
"There's a likelihood that a propeller had stalled," he said. "Going at a slow speed, the plane swerved to the right and hit an antenna tower."
He said the pilot had asked to turn back to base shortly after take-off, adding: "It means there was a problem."
Witnesses have said the plane was tilting and giving off black smoke just before it crashed into a massage parlour and hotel in a newly-built residential area.
However Putranto denied the plane was overloaded after the air force repeatedly revised upwards the number of people on the flight, sparking accusations paying civilians were on board, in violation of military rules.
"It's unlikely an overcapacity problem," the commander said. He said that the Hercules could carry 12.5 tonnes but the passengers on the flight would have only weighed about eight tonnes.
Relatives of some civilians from non-military families have said they paid between 700,000 rupiah (RM190) and one million rupiah to travel on the aircraft. The military has denied taking payments and vowed to investigate.
Meanwhile in Taipei, a new report by the Aviation Safety Council confirmed today the pilot of a passenger plane that crashed into a river in Taiwan killing 43 people shut down the plane's only working engine after the other failed.
TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 plunged shortly after take-off from Taipei's Songshan airport in February with 53 passengers and five crew on board.
Only 15 people survived.
Seconds before the crash the pilot said: "Wow, pulled back wrong throttle" the report revealed, from words recorded on a black box.
That led the plane's one working engine to fail after the other had already lost power, investigators said. – AFP