Indonesia Air Force Wants Ban On Masts Near Runways

Indonesia's air force has called for regulations governing the minimum distance between tall structures and airfields after revelations that a Hercules C-130 that crashed into buildings with 122 people on board had hit an antenna prior to coming down.



Air Force Spokesman Dwi Badarmanto expressed concern Friday about the presence of several radio antennae and tall buildings near the Soewondo Airfield in the North Sumatra provincial capital, where the flight took off from. 



"There should be no obstacles or interference [to flight navigation] such as that," he told Anadolu Agency.



He stressed the need for special regulations on the distance – preferably at least 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) -- of structures near airfields.



"In Medan, the distance of the antenna [from the air field] was shorter than 5 kilometers," Badarmanto said.



More than 140 people have been confirmed dead after the Hercules C-130 carrying 39 servicemen and 83 civilians from military families crashed Tuesday in a residential area of Medan.



Kompass. com reported Air Marshal Agus Supriatna as saying Friday that preliminary investigations had revealed damage to the engine on the right side of the aircraft. 



He added that the plane was flying at lower than normal speed when it hit the 30-meter antenna, situated 3.2 kilometers from the top of the runway



"The pilot could have coped with the situation had he not hit the towering radio antenna," he said.



While disaster victim identification (DVI) officials have yet to announce a final death toll, Commissioner Didiet – who like many Indonesians uses one name – told Anadolu Agency on Friday that 145 body bags had arrived from the accident site.



As of Friday morning, the DVI team had successfully identified 96 of them, 92 of which had already been handed to families to be buried.



Visual identification has become difficult, however, as many corpses are undergoing decomposition.



"To avoid more damage, we put 49 corpses into the refrigerator because the identification process is not finished," he said.



He asked for families to be patient as the identification process had to be done carefully and cautiously.



Although search and rescue operations for victims ended Wednesday, the probe into the incident continues. - Endonezya