Military helicopters have found the debris of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 plane that crashed yesterday during a demonstration flight in Jakarta. The plane crashed on Mount Salak. All the 45 people on board, including eight Russians, died in the crash.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono demanded a thorough investigation, Interfax reported.
Press reports vary as to whether any bodies have been recovered, but it is unlikely that anyone survived the crash, a national search and rescue agency spokesman told Itar Tass. The plane hit the ground hard and disintegrated. The fragments were seen on a practically vertical stretch of the mountain at a height of 1,585 meters, tweeted Sergei Dolya, who was with the Russian delegation at the show.
The blogger wrote that six paratroops had to descend to the crash-site from a helicopter.
The plane was taking part in a Greetings to Asia road show to showcase the new Russian plane.
Russian Aviation Construction Corporation confirmed that the plane was found, but did not mention its condition.
There were eight Russians, one American, one Frenchman, and two Italians, and the rest were Indonesian businessmen.
The plane disappeared off the radar at 11:21 am Moscow time on May 9. It was the second demonstration flight for the aircraft that day; the first was carried out normally.
The plane had flown 800 hours, and made 500 flights in total. The pilots were also highly qualified. Captain Alexander Yablontsev was a first class test pilot and had more than 10,000 hours of flight time on almost all types of aircraft. He piloted the first ever Sukhoi Superjet-100.
Possible causes of the crash
Indonesian authorities gave three possible explanations for the crash, including a hijacking, poor weather conditions and a technical error.
However, hijacking seems unlikely as the plane only had enough fuel for two short flights, and it was already on its second flight.
Weather could have played a part, and is more likely than human error, as the pilot was extremely experienced, and had a lot of flight time on Superjets.
On the other hand, a local pilot Ronny Rosnadi from Merpati Nusantara Airlines said it was the pilot’s error, as he was flying too low.
A technical fault could also be a possibility, aviation sources told Kommersant. But it would be able to confirm this only after the plane is examined.
Russia’s investigative committee opened a criminal case on the crash.
Russia’s aviation-industry hope
The 75- to 95-seater Superjet was Russia’s rival to Canadian Bombardier and Brazilian Embraer. These planes are to replace Tu-134 in the Russian fleet.
It made its inaugural commercial flight last year. Eight of the planes have bought by Armavia and Aeroflot.
The crash could seriously dent Russia’s aspirations on the world aircraft market.
This was the first aviation road show for a Russian passenger plane since the collapse of the USSR, Kommersant reported. Sukhoi Superjet-100 was supposed to visit six countries. It went to Kazakhstan on May 3, Pakistan on May 5, Burma on May 7. After May 9, the aircraft was set to travel to Laos and Vietnam.
The Sukhoi Superjet program cost 34 billion rubles, 16 billion of which came from the state. Sukhoi plans to sell 800 of these planes by 2029, that will allow it to take up to 15 percent of world market in regional planes, Izvestia reported. The catalogue cost of one SSJ-100 is $31.7 million. The Presidential Administration also expressed interest in the plane for carrying the head of state.
Experts say the crash is unlikely to affect orders for the plane.
“Undoubtedly no one will pretend that nothing happened, but as for sales, everything will depend on individual customer," editor in chief of Aviatransportnoye Obozrenie, Alexei Sinitsky, told Newsru.com.
