A C-130 Hercules military transport. At least 78 people died Wednesday morning in the crash of a C-130 Hercules military plane carrying more than 100 people on the Indonesian island of Java.
Many more are feared dead. Indonesian television showed video footage of burning jungle where the plane crashed. Soldiers were seen carrying bodies through a rice paddy on stretchers.
Air force spokesman Bambang Sulistyo said the plane was on a routine training mission when it crashed near an air force base in East Java province.
He said the plane was carrying 112 passengers and crew. It smashed into four houses in Gaplak village before skidding into a field.
The four-engine Hercules, in production since 1954, is one of the world's most successful military transports, perhaps rivalled only by the wartime Douglas DC-3, known to British and Canadian fliers as the Dakota.
The Hercules can carry 17 tonnes of cargo or 90 soldiers with light equipment. It has been a fixture of every U.S. war since Vietnam and played a key role in the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe, in which commandos swooped down to free hostages held at Uganda's international airport.
