104 Feared Dead as Jet Explodes Over Indonesia

A Singapore-operated jet carrying 104 people plunged into a river Friday on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. All aboard were feared dead--including five Americans--as rescuers in boats recovered body parts, IDs and luggage.

A police officer said the SilkAir Boeing 737 broke into pieces when it hit the water in a swampy area 35 miles north of Palembang. The plane was midway on its flight from Jakarta to Singapore.

A search and rescue official said today that the plane exploded before it came down.

“Based on what witnesses said, we can confirm that the plane exploded in the air before it crashed,” the official said from the Palembang airport.

SilkAir, a division of Singapore Airlines, said Flight MI-185 was carrying 97 passengers and seven crew members.

The wreckage was spotted near a village a swampy coastal area inaccessible by road, the official Antara news agency reported.

A police officer said the plane crashed into the Musi River, which winds through a large swamp on its way to the sea. Most of the wreckage sank soon after impact, he said.

The weather at the time of the crash was fine, although it was raining heavily when rescuers arrived in the evening, the officer said.

In Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board dispatched an investigating team to the crash site, including an explosives technician, said Drucie Andersen, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. She said the investigators were sent to look after U.S. interests but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, in northern Greece, a U.S. military plane with high-tech surveillance equipment joined the search Friday for a Ukrainian passenger jet lost in the fog-covered mountains.

The Navy P-3C Orion offered a powerful tool to cut through the harsh weather that has frustrated the search since the chartered Yakovlev-42 disappeared late Wednesday with 70 people aboard.

Rescuers were losing hope of finding survivors Friday, even as more than 3,500 soldiers carried out a ground search through deep snow.

The jet is believed to have crashed in the craggy wilderness around Mt. Olympus, 40 miles southwest of Salonica.