JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian military plane carrying more than 100 people crashed into several homes and burst into flames today, killing at least 79 people, officials said.
Dozens of people were injured, and more were feared dead, with local television flashing footage of fire engulfing the mangled wreckage and soldiers carrying bodies on stretchers. Some were badly burned.
Military spokesman Sagom Tamboen said the aircraft was transporting troops and their families, including at least 10 children, when it tumbled from the sky near an air force base in East Java province.
It smashed into a row of houses in Geplak village, killing three on the ground, before skidding into a rice field.
The tail of the plane and several large parts of its charred body were scattered in the paddy and nearby bushes.
It was not clear what caused the crash, the latest in a string to hit the air force.
But several witnesses described hearing a large explosion while it was still in the air and then seeing it split apart.
“One of the wings fell off,” Agus Yulianto, a villager, was quoted as saying on the website of Kompas newspaper. “Then the plane nose-dived into the houses.”
Suyono, a spokesman at the air force base, said he expected the death toll to climb.
Huge plumes of black smoke billowed from the scene, and bystanders were seen throwing buckets of water and sand at the flames. Ambulances were shuttling victims to a nearby hospital.
The country’s air force has long complained of being underfunded and handicapped by a recently lifted U.S. ban on weapons sales.
It has suffered a series of accidents, including a Fokker 27 plane that crashed into an airport hangar last month, killing all 24 onboard.
A series of commercial crashes has killed more than 120 people in Indonesia.
