JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian military transport plane carrying 110 people crashed and burst into flames in East Java on Wednesday, killing at least 78 people, an air force official said.
The C-130 Hercules aircraft ploughed into several houses on the ground, scattering debris and sending flames and billowing smoke into the air, TV footage showed. "The last data we have is that 78 people died and there are 15 survivors," air force spokesman Bambang Soelistyo told Reuters, adding that rescuers were still trying to evacuate more victims.
"The air force will form a team to investigate the accident," he added. Soelistyo said there had been 11 crew and 99 passengers on board the aircraft, including air force personnel and civilian family members.
National military spokesman Sagom Tamboen told a news conference that the plane had been in good condition and the weather was clear before the crash.
The official put the death toll at 57 from the plane and two on the ground. He said there had been 11 crew and 98 passengers, including 10 children.
"The others are badly injured so it is possible the death toll will increase," Tamboen said.
Television footage from the scene showed people desperately trying to extinguish flames with buckets of water.
"About 15 metres (50 ft) of the tail is still intact, but the body to the front is broken and burnt," said Suwardi, a sub-district head in Magetan, where the crash took place.
"Earlier we heard blasts. But not anymore, now the plane is still on fire," added the official, who said air force personnel were trying to evacuate victims but the site was difficult to reach because it was on the fringe of a rice field.
"I think there are still more people inside," he said, adding the plane had crashed at about 6:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. British time) around 5-7 km (3-4 miles) from the Iswahyudi air force base.
A doctor in a local hospital near the crash site said nine people were being treated.
The location of the crash is near the border of the districts of Madiun and Magetan in East Java, about 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya.
Air force spokesman Soelistyo said the plane had been flying from Jakarta to the eastern part of Java island.
Former air force chief Chappy Hakim told Reuters the plane that crashed was U.S. made and built in the 1980s.
Indonesia has a poor record of air safety and maintenance and has suffered a string of accidents in recent years affecting both commercial and military aircraft.
(Reporting by Telly Nathalia, Olivia Rondonuwu and Tyagita Silka; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Alex Richardson)