Airlines

Flight International online news 09:00GMT: Both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from the wreckage of the Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 that crashed yesterday in western Indonesia, killing nearly all on board and some on the ground.

The carrier says Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Commission is investigating yesterday’s accident and the US National Transportation Safety Board is likely to join the probe.

At around 10:00 local time yesterday the Mandala 737-200, operating a scheduled flight to Jakarta, crashed on takeoff from Medan, a major city on west Indonesia’s Sumatra island. The aircraft crashed 400-500m (1,300-1,600ft) from Medan airport and less than 1min after becoming airborne.

“There were eyewitnesses that said the aircraft was already about 100ft off the ground” before it ploughed into a residential district hitting houses and cars," says Mandala operations director Capt T Basuki.

Around 15 people on board survived, according to Basuki, whose information is in line with what local reports are saying today. Government officials initially said yesterday that there were no survivors.

Local reports today say around 150 people were killed in total, including nearly 50 people on the ground. There were 117 passengers and crew on board the aircraft.

All of the five-person crew were among the dead, says Basuki, who adds that the captain had 9,000 flight hours - including 3,000 on the aircraft type - and that the first officer had around 1,500 hours.

He also says the aircraft, registered as PK-RIM, completed a C-check in June.

LEITHEN FRANCIS/SINGAPORE