Hercules Crash

North Sumatra, Indonesia, 2015

© Roni Bintang

Twelve crew, 109 passengers and 22 people on the ground were killed when an Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules military aircraft crashed into a residential area of Medan, Sumatra, on June 30, 2015, shortly after take off.

There were chaotic scenes in the city of two million people. Thousands rushed to the crash site to search for survivors in the burning wreckage. No one survived. Members of the military tried unsuccessfully to secure the site, and it was soon realized that illegal practices and the Air Force’s ageing fleet contributed to the crash.

Among the military personnel and their families on board the aircraft were some civilians, who had paid for passage on the plane. Athough the Air Force claimed the aircraft was well maintained, many argued that at 51 years-old, it should have been retired. It was the sixth fatal plane crash involving the Indonesian air force in the past decade.