Deaths in Indonesia plane crash

At least 10 people have been killed when a military airplane crashed into a housing complex in Jakarta.

“All seven crew and three people on the ground were killed,” air force spokesman Colonel Agung Sasongko Jati told reporters on Thursday. 

The three who died on the ground were two cousins, aged two and six, and an elderly woman, Jati said, adding the six-year-old’s mother was in critical condition.

The Fokker F-27 was on a routine training flight when it crashed.

“The plane has split into two,” Jati said.

Al Jazeera’s Syarina Hasibuan reporting from Jakarta, said: “The plane was in good condition when it was flying and doing routine training this morning.”

“This is not the first time a military plane crashed in Indonesia. There had been several other similar incidents in the past.”

“According to activists, Indonesia needs to increase its defence budget because right now only between 40 and 60 per cent of the country’s military equipment is operating well or in good condition.”

Hendra, a resident in the air force housing complex in eastern Jakarta who uses only one name, said he ran out of his house after hearing several loud explosions and saw flames engulfing neighbours’ homes.

“I could hardly believe my eyes …  there was a military plane that crashed and hit the houses!” he said. “At once, the situation turned into chaos. All the residents fled in panic. Women and children were screaming hysterically.”

An official at the East Jakarta Fire Brigade said the aircraft crashed near a street within Halim Perdanakusuma air base.

Local media quoted witnesses as saying that at least eight houses caught fire. Private El Shinta radio reported rescuers were still searching for more possible victims among the rubble of the houses.