147 Dead, Flight Recorder Recovered

Investigators are hoping that a flight data recorder recovered at the scene of Monday's downed airliner in a crowded Indonesian neighborhood will yield the information needed to determine what brought the 24-year-old B737 down.

Officials on the scene said the 737-200 had just undergone a comprehensive maintenance check in June. It was slated for retirement in 2016, according to a Mandala Airlines spokesman.

As many as 147 people are now feared dead in the accident, according to comments made by those on the scene to local media. That number includes those killed on the ground when the low-cost carrier's B737-200 went down just after takeoff.

According to North Sumatra's acting governor Rizal Nurdin as many as 43 residents of the Medan neigoborhood were killed, in addition to those onboard the downed jet. Former North Sumatra provincial governor Teuku Rizal Nurdin was among the passengers killed.

Reports from witnesses and those onboard the airliner painted a hellish picture of the moments leading up to the accident.

"The plane had actually taken off, but somehow it started to shake heavily and swerved to the left, and then... wham, a ball of fire came from the front of the plane toward the back," said passenger Rohadi Sitepu to Indonesia's Metro Television.

Sitepu was one of 13 reported survivors who were seated in the tail section of the airliner, according to the airline. The jet was full, with 112 passengers and five crew.

A woman who was inside her home just before the jet slammed into it told Reuters, "At first I heard a bang. Then I looked up and there were balls of fire and then my son and daughter-in-law came to get me."

Several residents had their homes destroyed by the accident, and firefighters were still attacking blazes hours after the airliner went down.

FMI: www.mandalaair.com