Remains of plane crash victims taken to Medan

The remains of 14 passengers and four crew of the Casa 212-200, which crashed in a forested area of the Leuser National Park in Bahorok, Langkat, North Sumatra on Thursday, were taken to the Adam Malik Hospital in Medan on Sunday afternoon.

Nine of the bodies had arrived at the hospital at the time of writing, while the remaining nine were still on the way. They were brought to the hospital for identification purposes.

A relative of the victims, Rosmawati Harahap, 58, who came to see the remains of her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren at the hospital, said that she managed to identify the three victims.

"I could identify all of them," Rosmawati told The Jakarta Post, referring to Samsidar Yusri, 28, Harminatul Janah, 5, and Hanif Abdillah, 3.

Hanif was the youngest passenger aboard the ill-fated aircraft.
Meanwhile, Aceh deputy governor Muhammad Nazar, who also came to the hospital to see the bodies of the victims, said that most passengers were found with broken bones and extensive bruising.

"Most of them are identifiable, except the pilot, whose face was hard to identify due the impact of the crash," Nazar told reporters, referring to Fahal Ishak.

The small aircraft was reportedly tossed around by strong winds of up to 30 kilometers per hour in the area, which is between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level, before it hit a hillside and ended perched on trees on a 70 degree steep slope. Its nose was completely crushed, while the fuselage remained relatively intact.

The joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team managed to locate the wreckage of the aircraft a day after the accident. However it took three days before the team was able to evacuate the bodies due to bad weather coupled with rough conditions in the crash location.

The aircraft crashed only minutes after its departure from Polonia airport in Medan en route to Kutacane, Aceh.