Indonesian crews in arduous climb to Russian jet site

INDONESIA: Indonesian searchers with body bags and hoists scaled a steep volcano Friday to retrieve at least 45 bodies spread over the jungly terrain where a Russian jet crashed during a sales flight.

The crews were using climbing equipment to ascend the near-vertical face of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano south of Jakarta, and were believed to be about 200 metres (650 feet) from reaching the first bodies, authorities said. All aboard the Sukhoi Superjet 100 were killed, authorities said Thursday, a day after the plane slammed into the mountain during a flight that was meant to spur international sales of Russia's first post-Soviet civilian jet.

The military commander of the mission said that one team was climbing up from the foot of the mountain, while another was going down from the top.

The difficult terrain over the dormant volcano, which juts more than 7,200 feet (2,200 metres) into the air and is most days shrouded in thick fog, has been an extreme challenge to the searchers. The mist had stopped helicopters from getting close to the area, since a chopper pilot first spotted the wreckage Thursday morning, authorities said.

"The plane crashed into the mountain and slid 250 metres down, to 1,800 metres," said the commander, Colonel Anton Mukti Putranto. The twin-engine Superjet Wednesday descended to 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) before vanishing from radar screens. AFP