Malaysian among air crash victims

PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian in his 60s was aboard the ill-fated Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 that crashed in a residential area in Medan, Indonesia’s third biggest city yesterday morning. 

A Wisma Putra spokesman said Ti Teow Chuan, from Sabah, was among the passengers whose bodies were badly burnt. 

He said Ti's driver dropped him off at Polonia Airport, where he boarded the plane. 

Malaysian consul-general in Medan Mohd Yusof Abu Bakar when contacted yesterday said the consulate had sent a team to the hospital to locate Ti's body. 

TAKE-OFF TRAGEDY: Rescuers inspectingthe smouldering wreckage of a MandalaAirlines plane with 116 people on boardthat crashed shortly after taking offfrom Polonia airport in Medan, Sumatra. —AFPpic

He said Wisma Putra had been notified and officials were in the midst of contacting the next of kin of the deceased. 

“We are having problems trying to reach the man’s relatives as the numbers we have are not contactable.”  

The plane crashed into a crowded neighbourhood shortly after taking off from Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra.  

The airport is close to the town centre and surrounded by densely populated residential areas.  

North Sumatra Governor Rizal Nurdin and a former North Sumatra governor, Raja Inal Siregar, were on the flight. They were heading to Jakarta for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.  

For Another perspective from the Jakarta Post, a partner of Asia News Network, click here

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