10 killed in Indonesian air force plane crash

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 10 people have been killed after an Indonesian air force plane crashed into a housing complex in the east of the capital, Jakarta, BBC News reported.

Seven people on board the plane died, as well as two children and an elderly woman on the ground.

The Fokker 27 turboprop aircraft was on a routine training flight when it came down near the Halim Perdanakusuma military airstrip.

The plane split in two as it hit the ground, sending flames into the air.

Still pictures broadcast by a local TV network showed the plane's tail on top of a charred house. "All seven crew and three people on the ground were killed," air force spokesman Colonel Agung Sasongko Jati told reporters.

The plane, which was on a training exercise, hit the Rajawali residential complex at 14:45 local time (07:45 GMT).

An official at the air force hospital said that more than 10 people, including some children, were being treated for injuries after the crash, AP reports.

Military spokesman Iskandar Sitompul told AFP news agency that the plane was more than 20 years old.

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

On 9 May a Russian Sukhoi Superjet plane crashed into mountains in Indonesia, killing all 45 people on board.

In 2009, 24 people died after a military plane, also on a training flight, crashed and caught fire at an airport in West Java.