Weather slows recovery of bodies from Indonesia plane crash
Heavy fog and bad weather hampered rescuers Wednesday trying to evacuate bodies in eastern Indonesia where a passenger plane crashed into a mountain over the weekend, killing all 54 people on board, officials said.
The plane slammed into a mountain on Sunday but it took rescuers almost two days to reach the wreckage because of the rugged, forested terrain and bad weather.
Henry Bambang Soelistyo, the National Search and Rescue Agency chief, said bad weather was still hampering the operation and that rescuers would now try to carry the bodies out.
"Heavy rains and poor visibility were hampering our rescue efforts and evacuation process will be done by foot," said Soelistyo, adding the bodies would be taken to Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, so they can be identified.
The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- the plane's "black boxes" -- were found in good condition, Soelistyo said. The data they contain could help explain what caused the Trigana Air Service plane to crash.
