The Indonesian rescue team Tuesday arrived at the mountainous area in West Sulawesi province where a passenger plane with 102 people onboard crashed Monday, finding at least 90 bodies at the scene.

 

The plane crashed into pieces at a mountain in Polewali regency, some 1,500 km northeast of Jakarta.

 

Rescuers reached the scene after walking overnight accompanied by local residents, search and rescue team member Suyatno was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.

 

"The nearest airport would soon deploy a helicopter to help the evacuation and send 102 body bags," he said.

 

The Boeing 737-400 belonging to low-cost carrier Adam Air made a distress call Monday evening and disappeared from the radar screen minutes later. The cause of the accident remains unknown, but airport officials reported hostile weather around the location when it occurred.

 

It was the worst air disaster since Sept. 5, 2005, when a Mandala Airline's Boeing 737-200 crashed shortly after taking off from the North Sumatra's airport, killing 103 people onboard and 47 others on the ground.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)