Indonesian Military Transport Plane Crashes, Killing Dozens

An Indonesian air force transport plane carrying military personnel and their families plowed into a residential neighborhood in the country's third-largest city of Medan shortly after takeoff on Tuesday, killing dozens.

Television footage showed the mangled wreckage of the C-130 Hercules, a crumpled burning car and a shattered building that local media said was recently built and contained a spa, shops and homes. Smoke billowed from the site and several thousand people milled nearby. Rescue teams scrambled over the rubble, searching for any survivors.

 Air force chief Air Marshall Agus Supriatna said 49 bodies have been recovered and taken to Medan's Adam Malik hospital. He said there is unlikely to be any survivors.

Supriatna, the air force chief, said the pilot told the control tower that the plane needed to turn back because of engine trouble.

"The plane crashed while it was turning right to return to the airport," he said.

Medan resident Fahmi Sembiring said he saw the gray Hercules flying very low as he was driving.

"Flames and black smoke were coming from the plane in the air," he said.

Sembiring said he stopped not far from the crash site and saw several people rescued by police, security guards and bystanders.

Another man, Janson Halomoan Sinagam, said several of his relatives were on the plane when it left Medan.

"We just want to know their fate," he told MetroTV, weeping. "But we have not yet received any information from the hospital."