A ce stade, il y aurait 42 riverains tués et de nombreux blessés dans le crash intervenu 600 mètres après le décollage. si l’avion avait encore volé 1.500 mètres de plus, il était en pleine ville !

Cela démontre-t-il à suffisance le danger de décoler au-dessus de zones desément peuplées ?

Plane crash kills 149

Apriadi Gunawan and Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Medan

A Boeing-737 aircraft owned by PT Mandala Airlines Indonesia crashed into a densely populated residential area in Medan, North Sumatra, minutes after take-off on Monday, leaving at least 149 people dead and many others seriously injured.

The ill-fated plane had 112 passengers, including three children, and five crew members onboard. A local official said 102 of them had died in the crash, while 15 others had miraculously survived.

At least 42 people were killed on the ground as the aircraft slammed into Padang Bulan, a crowded residential area. Some 30 houses were destroyed by fire. Wreckage of the plane and burned vehicles littered the usually busy Jl. Djamin Ginting, which borders on the airport.

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Ce qui suit donne aussi une idée de la panique quand un avion tombe en ville. A méditer par notre Gouverneure et nos bourgmestres.

Samir Tumanggor, a resident of Padang Bulan, said he saw the tip of aircraft’s left wing hit a house. The plane then flipped over on its right side and ploughed through dozens of cars, and passersby on the road.

« After scything through the cars and people, the plane slammed into the road and exploded into flames, » he said.

It took dozens of fire engines and hundreds of rescue workers some 30 minutes to arrive at the scene due to the heavy traffic congestion and the massive crowd of onlookers that had congregated at the scene.

« The traffic jams and the crowd really hampered us in trying to put out the blaze. As a result, it spread to adjacent houses. This also hindered rescue workers in getting to the survivors, » said a fireman who requested anonymity.

Hundreds of rescue workers from the Medan municipal administration and the local military, and at least 60 ambulances, were deployed to evacuate the victims.