A Russian team arrived in Indonesia Friday to investigate the crash of a Russian passenger jet carrying up to 47 passengers, dpa reported. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 ploughed into a volcano near Jakarta Wednesday while on a demonstration flight for potential buyers. Rescuers found the wreckage Thursday. No passengers survived. The Russian embassy said the Russian investigators would work with their Indonesian counterparts to determine the cause of the crash. The Russian team consisted of experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Interstate Aviation Committee and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, the embassy said. Six helicopters were sent to the crash site early Friday to fly out the bodies of the victims, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Agency. "We have to lift the bodies as soon as possible because the weather is usually foggy in the afternoon," he said. The plane hit the side of Mount Salak at an estimated speed of 450 kilometres an hour and an altitude of 1,800 metres, Prakoso said. Television footage showed small pieces of debris strewn on a steep cliff. The precipitous terrain and thick fog had made it difficult for rescuers to reach the site to collect the bodies, Prakoso said. The plane disappeared from radar 20 minutes after it took off from the Jakarta Halim Perdanakusuma airport. Officials said the crew had asked for permission to descend from 3,000 to 1,800 metres before the aircraft disappeared from radar. The Superjet 100 is the newest major aircraft produced by Russia's aerospace industry and the country's main hope of breaking into the lucrative international passenger plane market. It is designed to carry 75 to 95 passengers on intermediate-range routes. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin late Thursday. "We both expressed our sadness and agreed to work together to establish what happened," Yudhoyono told relatives of the victims at the airport.
