Families of Indonesian plane crash victims grieve for loved ones

APD

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Families of passengers perished in the crash of an Indonesian plane in the easternmost province of Papua grieved for their loved ones killed unexpectedly during their travels.

Some of them could not control their emotion to see those bodies unloaded from planes and helicopters in body bags and later on contained in white coffins emblazoned with numbers of bodies registered by the rescue team.

They shouted to express their deepest sadness from the Sentani air forces base's apron that saw on Thursday the delivery of the remaining 50 bodies from the total 54 people killed in the crash.

One of them was Elizabeth Ireneus, a relative of one of the ill- fated plane passengers. She could not stop weeping to vent her grief for the sudden passing of her uncle.

She was consoled by her relatives upon witnessing the evacuation of bodies, most of which were found burned. After being calmed down by the airport security guards, she was able to regain control of her emotion.

"He was very kind to me. The last time I saw him was when he said good-bye in the airport before he board the plane. He told me to be good and be serious with my study," the 20-year-old student said after waving to the ambulances carrying the body of her uncle.

She said she cried when she learned about the crash from TV news and she knew that her uncle was on that doomed plane.

The crash also crushed the heart of a woman whose brother was among those boarded in the plane. She regretted the death on her brother, saying that it destroyed her expectation to spend more time with him during his retirement period.

"My brother was the Sentani postal office official boarded on that plane. He was about to retire, but he was still diligent with his job that made him willing to take his office task in Oksibil," Ursula Hurulean told Xinhua on Tuesday when she gave physical information about her 55 year-old brother, Yustinus Hurulean.

She said that she was surprised to know about the crash as she didn't know about the trip taken by her brother that led to his death.

She added that children of his brother have already made plans for their father's retirement years so as to let him spend more time with his family.

Her brother was one of the postal officers to bring a total of 6.5 billion rupiah (about 468,000 U.S. Dollars) of fund to villages in Oksibil to finance empowerment programs there.

Reports said the money contained in briefcases have been found, but most of them were already burned.

She expected the government and the airline company can help accelerate the disbursement of insurance money so as to make it useful for the family.

49 passengers were on board the crashed turbo propeller of Trigana Air flight ATR 42 that was operated by 5 crews. The plane crashed while flying from Sentani to Oksibil on Sunday.

The search team managed to locate and recover all bodies of the passengers in two days after the crash. Rescuers have also recovered the flight data recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the plane, both of which are essential for further investigation into the crash.

All 54 bodies of those on board the plane are now kept in a hospital in Papua capital of Jayapura for further identification process before being handed over to their families who would bury them properly.