Indonesia: A domestic passenger jet yesterday crashed into a residential neighbourhood of the Indonesian city of Medan seconds after take off, killing 100 of the 117 people on board and 47 people on the ground.
The Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 was on a direct flight to the capital Jakarta when it plunged on to a busy road and buildings 500 metres (546 yds)from the end of the Polonia airport runway.
Conditions were overcast but otherwise good at the time.
"We were gaining height and the landing gear was being retracted," one of the survivors, Rohadi Sittepu, told Metro TV. "It started shaking and banked steeply to the left, and then, bang, fire was everywhere.
"I was thrown to the ground and escaped through a hole in the fuselage. I ran and ran because I feared there would be an explosion." All the survivors were in the tail section.
Paramedics, firefighters and police rushed to the scene but were hampered by the intense heat and thousands of people who flocked to the scene to watch the inferno.
Telephone and power links to the area were also cut.
Zainul Tahar, a rescue co-ordinator, said that as well as the 47 people killed on the ground, more than a dozen people had been injured.
About three dozen houses are thought to have been destroyed or badly damaged.
All the victims are thought to be Indonesian. They included the governor of North Sumatra province, whose capital is Medan. His staff said he was on his way to a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta.
One would-be passenger, the MP Antarini Malik, survived because she had delayed booking her seat, and had to take another plane as the Mandala flight was full. Several of her friends and colleagues were among the dead.
The aircraft was 25 years old and had received its last service in June. It had flown more than 50,000 hours but was not due to be retired until 2016.
Asril Tanjung, a Mandala director, said the cause of the crash had yet to be determined, but foul play was not suspected.
"For the moment, we are saying that the cause is from take-off failure, but we don't know yet whether it was from engine trouble, human error or the weather," he said.
The government immediately ordered an investigation into the crash.
Mandala, which is majority owned by an Indonesian military foundation, was set up in 1969. Its 15 aircraft are mainly 1970s-era Boeing 737s.
In recent years it has struggled to remain profitable and has had to cut services and reduce fares to remain competitive with the budget airlines that have sprung up.
Medan airport, the main staging point for relief efforts to the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh, was shut for several hours after the crash.
Indonesia's last crash involving a large jet was in February, when 26 people were killed when an aircraft operated by the low-cost carrier Lion Air skidded off the runway at Solo airport in Java.
In September 1997 a Garuda airlines Airbus crashed into mountains near Medan, killing all 232 people on board.
- (Guardian service)