Death toll in Indonesian plane crash rose to 142

Medan

The death toll from the crash of an Indonesian air force plane into a city neighbourhood rose to 142 Wednesday, amid claims civilians had paid for flights on the doomed aircraft in violation of military rules.

Witnesses described scenes of horror when the Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed into a residential area of Medan on Tuesday, shortly after taking off from an airbase in the city of two million people on Sumatra island.

Buildings were severely damaged, cars reduced to flaming wrecks and the plane itself was almost completely destroyed, with the mangled tail the only part of the 51-year-old aircraft still recognisable after the disaster. Many of those on board the flight, which was carrying 122 people, were believed to be servicemen and women and their families.

But the air force has repeatedly revised up the number of people on the plane -- it initially indicated there were only 12 crew  raising questions about poor management and whether there were paying civilian passengers on board.

As more bodies were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital, police put the total death toll at 142, indicating a growing number of fatalities on the ground. So far 62 victims, mostly military personnel, have been identified.

New witness accounts emerged of terrifying scenes, with one man describing how the plane flew low and then smashed into a building, producing "flames as high as four storeys".

"Everyone panicked and screamed," Tumpak Naibaho, a 27-year-old tyre repairman, said, adding there were hundreds of people in the area when the crash happened around midday. "I thought it was a terrorist attack or something... I saw one man whose clothes were on fire, staggering out of the debris. His face was covered in blood, dust and ash."

People in the area said several buildings were thought to have been destroyed when the plane came down, hitting a massage parlour and hotel.