All 18 people in Indonesia plane crash found dead

BBC News

1 October 2011 Last updated at 06:20 GMT
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The aircraft's body appears to be largely intact

All 18 people aboard a plane that crashed in western Indonesia earlier this week have been found dead, officials say.

The Casa C-212 plane came down in a mountainous part of Sumatra on Thursday, but bad weather and rough terrain had hampered rescue efforts.

The aircraft sent an emergency signal before disappearing from radar. The cause of the crash is not known.

There were four children among the passengers.

"Two teams were lowered to the crash site and they have confirmed that all 18 people on the plane have died," Indonesia's search and rescue head Sunarbowo Sandi announced on television on Saturday.

He did not provide further details.

The aircraft crashed on Thursday morning near the North Sumatran village of Bahorok, about 70km (40 miles) from the city of Medan.

The plane's wreckage was spotted during aerial surveillance shortly afterwards.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and has a poor aviation safety record.

In May, 27 people died when a passenger plane crashed into the sea off the eastern province of West Papua.

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