INDONESIA: A woman was killed and several people injured when a Garuda Indonesia airline Boeing 737 carrying 54 passengers and six crew members crash-landed yesterday into a river in central Java, a doctor and officials said.
The body of the woman was brought into Oen hospital, in the central Java town of Solo, four hours after the aircraft made an emergency landing on the Bengawan Solo river, said Doctor Wibisono Sudayana.
Flight GA-421 had been bound for the central Java city of Yogyakarta from the island of Lombok, near the resort island of Bali, when it crash-landed in the Bengawan Solo river some 30 kilometres north-east of its destination.
"The body of a woman, apparently that of a plane stewardess, was taken out of an ambulance and it is now at the morgue," Dr Sudayana said.
"We need to conduct an autopsy in order to know the real cause of death," Dr Sudayana said.
The state Antara news agency said one female flight attendant, identified as Santi remained missing. Mr Hariyadi Subagyo, the head of the Yogyakarta airport administration said the right wing of the aircraft was broken.
He said the plane was "trapped" in a heavy rain storm before sufferring mechanical failure which prompted the pilot to land it at the river.
A Garuda spokesman Mr Singgih Handoyo said the aircraft was carrying 54 passengers, including three babies, and six crew. Adjunct Chief Commissioner, Mr Ketut Yoga, the police commander for the area, told SCTV television that 12 injured passengers had been taken to a private hospital in the town of Solo.
However, a nurse at the Oen hospital in Solo later said that 21 people had been admitted from the crash site with light to medium injuries.- (AFP)