No survivors in Indonesia plane crash

10 May 2012, 6:40 pm   -   Source: AAP

Search and rescue teams that have reached the site where a plane crashed into the side of a mountain in Indonesia have not found any survivors.

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Authorities say the passengers and crew on board a Russian plane had no chance of survival when the aircraft slammed into the side of a mountain in Indonesia during a demonstration flight.

Search and rescue officers, who reached the crash site on foot late on Thursday afternoon, have confirmed that no survivors had been found.

The wreckage of the Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100, which was carrying about 50 people, was spotted from the air on Thursday morning at Mount Salak, a dormant volcano about 80km south of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Aerial photographs of the crash site released by the Indonesian Air Force showed debris strewn across an almost vertical section of the mountain, indicating the plane slammed directly into a rock face.

Gagah Prakoso, an official with Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, said the team on the ground had not accounted for all the passengers, but added there was no chance of survival.

"The team has reached there and entered. There are dead bodies there," he said.

"Numbers, we have to be careful because the flight manifest, it's changing.

"But the plane hit the rock wall at high speed. It blew up and shattered."

The plane was on its second demonstration flight for the day when it disappeared from radar about 2.50pm (5.50pm AEST) on Wednesday, almost an hour after leaving an airport in Jakarta.

Shortly before the crash, it had descended from 10,000 feet to 6000 feet.

It was found on Thursday morning on the side of Mount Salak, about 3km from the town of Cijeruk.

Search and rescue officers were forced to make their way to the crash site on foot after earlier attempts to reach the wreckage by air had failed.

Ali Umri Lubis, a military official from an airbase near where the plane went down, said the crash site was about 6000 feet above sea level.

While the cause of the crash is not yet known, a villager from Tenjolaya district near Mount Salak, said he had seen the aircraft flying unsteadily just before it went down.

"It was still way above the trees, but veering left and right, and then it disappeared," Juanda, who has only one name, told AFP.

"I heard a sound like firecrackers, but I couldn't see it anymore."

Devastated relatives of some of those aboard plane had gathered on Thursday at Halim Perdanakusuma airport, where the plane had departed from on Wednesday, awaiting news from the crash site.

They had already feared the worst, with some providing DNA samples to help with the identification of the bodies.

By Thursday afternoon, their worst fears had been realised.

The exact number of fatalities remains unclear with conflicting reports putting the number of passengers on board the plane at between 46 and 50 people.

Authorities have confirmed, however, that eight of those aboard were Russians, including pilots and technicians.

It's understood a French national and a US citizen were also on the flight.

It was also carrying aviation industry representatives, diplomats and journalists.

The flights on Wednesday were part of an Asian tour aimed at promoting the new twin-engine Superjet - a joint venture between Sukhoi and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica.

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