Indonesian Government Trying To Hide 747 Crash Disaster?

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

RELATIVES of passengers on a missing Indonesian plane were in tears yesterday after even more bad news.

A report that the Boeing 737's charred wreckage had been found and that a dozen people may have survived turned out to be false.

'Oh, what is happening to us?' wailed Madam Dorce Sundalangi, whose daughter was on the flight, after hearing the report was based on rumours from villagers that trickled up to the highest levels of government. 
Picture: Reuters


'They had given us hope of seeing our beloved relatives... But it was false hope.'

The Adam Air plane carrying 102 people disappeared on Monday after sending two distress signals in stormy weather halfway through its two-hour journey from Indonesia's main island of Java to Manado, on the northern tip of Sulawesi.

Police Chief Colonel Genot Hariyanto earlier said rescue teams had arrived at the crash site.

Mr Setyo Raharjo, head of the National Commission on Transportation Safety, said then that 90 bodies were found near the wreckage, and the search for the other 12 was continuing.

The claims were repeated by everyone from the chief of Adam Air - who said that a dozen people survived - to senior aviation officials, and high-ranking military officials and police.

VIVID DESCRIPTIONS

Descriptions were vivid, with officials saying corpses and debris from the plane were scattered over a 300m area of forest and jagged cliffs - highlighting the often unreliable and chaotic nature of disaster relief efforts in Indonesia.

Eventually, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa acknowledged the news was based on rumours from villagers.

'The search and rescue team is still looking for the location,' the minister told El-Shinta radio.

'It has not yet been found.'

The false alarm caused much frustration among the waiting relatives.

Mr Toni Toliu, 48, from Manado, told Reuters: 'It was said that the search and rescue team had seen the aircraft. We are confused about whom we should trust.'

His sister and her two children were on the plane.

Mr Bambang Karnoyudho, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said much of the original information came from Col Genot, who said he received the news from his subordinates after they spoke to a village chief.

'Once he went to check for himself, he found it was not true,' Mr Bambang said, referring to the local police chief.

Air force Rear Commanderr Eddy Suyanto - among those who earlier confirmed that the Adam Air plane crashed in the mountainous Sulawesi region in Polewali - acknowledged the error late yesterday and apologised.

But that provided little consolation to relatives awaiting news about the missing plane.

Some were camped out at the Adam Air counter at the Manado airport - the destination of the ill-fated plane - and others were in the southern Sulawesi city of Makassar, believed to be closer to where the plane went down.

'I don't understand how the authorities could be so heartless and spread rumours without thinking of the suffering of those waiting for news of their loved ones,' said Ms Ima Kulata, who was awaiting word about her cousin and two nieces.

'It's ridiculous,' she said, crying after learning there may be no survivors after all.

'How come they made such fools of us?'

Earlier yesterday, some people gathered at the airport collapsed when hearing reports about the high death toll. Others angrily banged on the door of the Adam Air office, demanding information.

Most of the missing passengers are Indonesian.

Three foreign citizens were on board, American Scott Jackson and daughters Stephanie and Lindsay.

National aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said the plane involved in Monday's disaster was 17 years old, had flown 45,371 hours and passed its last inspection on 25 Dec.

'Everything was in order, the condition of the plane was good,' he said, adding it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash though it went down in severe weather. - AP.


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Adam Air owner: I'm trying to save lives


THEY had set out to create the best and safest airline in Indonesia.

But for Mr Adam Adhitya Suherman (left) and his family - the owners of Adam SkyConnection Airlines - the fate of their missing plane could become a potential dent to their dream.

'We want to be a good airline; not a big airline, but a good airline,' Mr Suherman said in an interview last year.

Yesterday, Mr Suherman, the airline's 26-year-old president, said he was working from a crisis co-ordination room. He, too, had initially believed survivors had been located, reported International Herald Tribune.

'I am trying to save lives,' he said over the telephone.

Adam Air is the product of his childhood dreams.

In three years, Mr Suherman, his mother and three brothers had taken the airline from nothing to become one of Indonesia's most vibrant aviation businesses.

The family of Indonesian- Chinese entrepreneurs from West Java had prided themselves on the quality of the airline's service and its safety, despite an incident last year in which a plane flew off course and made an unscheduled landing.

From a shoestring domestic operation, based on three leased Boeing 737s, it had grown by 2006 into a US$300 million-a-year ($460m) business, flying 19 aircraft to 25 domestic and international destinations.