21 killed as Indonesia jet crashes

12 April 2012

At least 21 people were reported to have been killed when an Indonesian passenger plane carrying 140 people burst into flames as it landed on Java island.

The Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400, whose passengers included around 10 Australian journalists and diplomatic staff, overshot the runway of Yogyakarta airport and caught fire.

The jet started shaking violently before landing and then overshot the runway, hitting fences and slamming into a rice field before 7am local time. Some survivors said the fire began at the front of the plane before engulfing the aircraft.

The airline said that 140 passengers and crew were on board.

Garuda said in a statement that 21 people had died and that the other 119 passengers and crew survived and were being treated in hospital. It did not give their nationalities.

The Australians were heading to Yogyakarta for a visit there by foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, who was in Indonesia for an anti-terror conference. He was not on board the jet.

Around two hours after the accident firefighters extinguished the blaze, which had gutted the plane, witnesses said.

At the crash site, survivor and local Islamic leader Dien Syamsudin said: "Before the plane landed it was shaking. Suddenly there was smoke inside the fuselage, it hit the runway and then it landed in a rice field.

"I saw a foreigner. His clothes were on fire and I jumped from the emergency exit. Thank God I survived."

Another passenger told local TV station RCTI TV that "before landing I felt the plane shake strongly". "We overshot the runway, then I heard the sound of an explosion and ran through an emergency exit," said Muhammad Dimyati. "I believe many passengers remained trapped on board."

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