Indonesian air force loses 13 in crash, official says

By Reuters/Agustinus Beo Da Costa December 17, 2016 | 10:25 pm PT

Security forces and rescue teams examine the wreckage of an Indonesian military C-130 Hercules transport plane after it crashed into a residential area in the North Sumatra city of Medan, Indonesia, June 30, 2015. Reuters/Roni Bintang

A training exercise proved fatal for 13 people on board of the air force transport plane that crashed into a mountain.

An Indonesian air force transport plane has crashed into a mountain, killing all 13 people board, during a training exercise in the remote region of Papua, a search and rescue agency official said on Sunday.

A Hercules C130 plane left the city of Timika and crashed near its destination of Wamena at around 6.15 a.m. according to Ivan Ahmad Riski Titus, operational director of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency.

The crash site has been located and the victims' bodies are being brought back to Wamena, he said.

Air transport is commonly used in remote and mountainous Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible.

Indonesia has a patchy air safety record and President Joko Widodo promised a review of the country's aging air force fleet last year after a military transport plane crashed, killing more than 100 people.

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