Yogyakarta, Indonesia – “Fire! Fire!” the passengers yelled.
Like many others on her flight, Nuniek Sufithri had thanked God she was alive after the Boeing 737-400 made a terrifying descent and lurched off the runway, bouncing several times before plowing through a fence.
Then the jetliner burst into flames.
“People started yelling ‘Fire! Fire!”‘ said Sufithri, who is 10 weeks pregnant. “I tried to get out but was trampled. … Someone pulled me up, carried me to the back door and threw me out.”
At least 21 people were killed in the burning wreckage of the Garuda Airlines plane after it crash-landed Wednesday at Yogyakarta airport on Java island, the latest in a string of recent plane crashes that has cast doubt on the safety of Indonesia’s airline industry.
About 115 others escaped through emergency exits as black smoke billowed behind them, and two passengers were missing, officials said. Most survivors escaped without major injuries, although several suffered burns and broken bones.
Sufithri, 30, was rushed to a hospital after a stranger swept her up from a rice paddy. She suffered no major injuries and did not miscarry.
Wayan Sukarda, an Indonesian cameraman for Australia’s Seven Network, managed to scramble off the plane, then shot dramatic video of dazed passengers fleeing as black smoke and orange flames poured from the fuselage behind them.
An explosion and fireball then ripped through the air, apparently as the fire reached a fuel tank, the footage showed.
Of the 140 people on the plane, about 19 were foreigners, including nine Australian diplomats, journalists and security officials visiting for an anti-terrorism conference. Indonesian officials said at least two Australians were among the dead: a financial reporter and an embassy employee, said the journalist’s assistant and the state news agency Antara.
The Indonesian government ordered an investigation into the crash, the third involving a commercial jet in three months.
