Indonesian Jet Crashes; 234 On Board -- Smoke, Haze From Forest Fires Investigated As Possible Cause

JAKARTA - An Indonesian jetliner carrying 234 people crashed today in an area of Sumatra where visibility has been hampered by dense smoke from forest fires.

Witnesses said it exploded and came to rest in pieces in a mountainside rice field. All aboard were feared dead.

Rescuers located 212 bodies in the burning, broken-up wreckage of the Garuda Airlines jet before the search ended for the night, airline official John Pieter said.

Eleven foreigners, including two Americans, were among the plane's 222 passengers and 12-member crew, the airline said.

The airline identified the Americans as Lloyd and Hase Herr, both residents of Indonesia.

Authorities were investigating whether the thick smoke and haze played a role in the crash of the A-300B4 Airbus.

Hundreds of forest fires smoldering for months across Indonesia have forced many Southeast Asian airports to shut down because of poor visibility.

Witnesses said Flight GA152 from Jakarta to Medan was flying low in the haze 20 miles from Medan's Polonia Airport when it hit a tree and crashed in pieces.

"The weather conditions were OK for landing, but there was smoke haze around Medan at the time," Communications Minister Haryanto Danutirto said.

Anteve television quoted witnesses as saying there was an explosion seconds before impact. The plane, it said, broke into several pieces.

Garuda canceled several flights to Medan after the crash, citing poor visibility. Airport officials said other airlines continued to use the airport into the night.

Medan is a major commodities and trading center.

The haze and the rugged terrain prevented rescuers from flying helicopters to the crash site, a mountainous area about 870 miles northwest of Jakarta.

Sumatra, along with neighboring Borneo, is among the islands most affected by the fires, many of which were deliberately set to clear land.

Garuda is Indonesia's largest state-owned airline and operates international and domestic flights.

Indonesia, spread along the equator and comprising about 17,500 islands, relies heavily on air transport, although international experts are often critical of the standard of training and maintenance practices.

On July 17, a Dutch-built Sempati Air commuter plane crashed near a housing complex on the island of Java, killing 27 people.

Fifteen people were killed when a British-made ATP turboprop plane flown by the state-run Merpati Nusantara airline crashed off the island of Sumatra on April 19.

The plane that crashed today had been delivered to Garuda in November 1982, according to Airbus Industrie, the France-based manufacturer. By the end of August, the plane had flown about 16,500 flights, the company said.

Among the passengers in today's crash was one of Indonesia's leading businessmen, Polar Yanto Tanoto.

Tanoto, the president director of pulp and rayon company PT Inti Indorayon Utama, was flying back to his head office in Medan, a company spokesman said.

Other passengers included a two-member camera crew for the local SCTV television station who were flying to Medan to cover the choking haze that has surrounded the region, Garuda officials said.

Bush fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan have sent a choking, health-threatening haze across neighboring Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. The smoke has also drifted as far as the southern Philippines and parts of Thailand, including the resort area of Phuket.

Information from Reuters is included in this report.