Aircraft Was On Aerial Mapping And Photo Mission

Recovery operations are still underway after an Indonesian military CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop went down in dense jungle on the side of a mountain in Indonesia Thursday. The aircraft disappeared from radar 1503 local time Thursday. Officials stated the aircraft had departed Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta on a mission to test a digital mapping camera system.

According to AFP, wreckage was spotted Friday on Salak Mountain, a rugged, steep slope 25 miles south of the capital city of Jakarta in the town of Bogor. Due to the remote nature of the site, search and rescue teams were not able to reach the site until early Saturday.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of all 18 persons aboard the aircraft according to search and rescue team head Hadi Tugiman. Though rescuers built a makeshift helipad near the crash site, heavy fog blanketing the mountainside prevented helicopters safely approaching the area.

"We have found all 18 victims," Tugiman said. "Our plan is to take them out tomorrow (Saturday)... by helicopter."

Air force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said steep and slippery conditions on the mountain slope further hampered rescue and recovery efforts. "It's quite difficult to go down and come up," he said.

Police have said local residents were the first to witness the aircraft going down into the dense pocket of jungle on the mountain's slopes. Local villagers reportedly reached the crash site before it was spotted Friday by an air force aircraft searching for the flight.

"People living around the Mount Salak area saw a plane flying on Thursday and then they heard sounds of an explosion," one police officer in the region said earlier.

Among the passengers were six civilians including three foreigners from Singapore, India, and England who were employed by the Singapore-based company Credent Technology, specializing in high-resolution satellite imagery and laser scanning for mapping.

FMI: www.tni-au.mil.id