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Indonesia probes air crash as neighborhood mourns
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-06 10:56

PROBE UNDERWAY

Following the crash President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered an investigation headed by the transportation minister into aviation safety standards, the Jakarta Post newspaper said.

Yudhoyono plans to visit Medan on Tuesday for a first-hand look at the scene.

An aircraft flies over the wreckage of the plane which crashed into a residential area in Medan September 6, 2005.[Reuters]

The crash is the second in Indonesia by a domestic carrier in less than a year. On November 30, 2004, a Lion Air MD-82 plane carrying 146 passengers and seven crew skidded off a rain-slicked runway at Solo in central Java, killing 31 people and injuring dozens more.

Soaring fuel prices have hit the country's airlines hard, putting some smaller carriers out of business and forcing others to cut services.

Mandala director Asril Tanjung has said the cause of the crash was being investigated, but foul play was highly unlikely.

Officials have said technical problems and pilot error were among the possible causes being investigated. The aircraft in Monday's accident had been built in 1981, and was fit for eight more years of flying, according to the airline.

Mandala Airlines is one of Indonesia's oldest private carriers, operating a number of Boeing 737s. It competes in a crowded market since the establishment of numerous budget airlines in the past five years.

Medan, 1,425 km (885 miles) northwest of Jakarta, is the main gateway for aid into tsunami-hit Aceh province, and its airport is one of Indonesia's busiest.

Indonesia's worst air crash occurred in September 1997, when a Garuda Airbus A-300B4 crashed in a mountainous area near Medan, killing all 222 passengers and 12 crew.

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