Rescue teams searched areas around a central Indonesia airport yesterday for survivors and victims of a plane crash that police said killed at least 31 people and left 47 unaccounted for.

The McDonnell-Douglas MD-82, operated by budget domestic carrier Lion Air and carrying 163 passengers and crew, skidded off the runway of Solo city’s airport as it landed in heavy rain around dusk on Tuesday after a flight from Jakarta.

Other sources were giving different numbers. A Lion Air official said only 154 people – 146 passengers and eight crew – were aboard, of whom 25 were known dead. But Bambang, a police duty officer in the Central Java province, told Reuters there were 29 dead passengers and two dead crew members, while another 43 people on the plane had been badly injured and 32 had light injuries.

Authorities were trying to locate the remaining passengers, Bambang said. “We can’t tell if (the unaccounted for) are dead or not at this stage,” he said, adding: “We found bones and chunks of flesh in the area of the crash.

“We’re having difficulties in identifying the bodies because the data from the manifest and some of the identities that we found did not match,” he said. The pilot’s body had been recovered, officials said. At least one wing ripped off the plane, which came to rest in a nearby cemetery after skidding off the runway, witnesses said. The fuselage was badly damaged. “At this point, we cannot reveal the cause of the accident. The authorities are now in charge of the investigation,” said the Lion Air official, Sendy, who declined to give her surname.

Legislator among dead

Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the site under cloudy skies yesterday morning while dozens of soldiers and rescue officials scoured the muddy area and did clean-up work. Survivors said the accident happened without warning. Lukito, 49, who was unhurt, said he escaped through an emergency door and walked to the nearest road for help.

“As soon as the plane landed, suddenly it speeded up and kept going faster and faster,” Lukito said. “Everything was dark. Everyone was screaming Allahu Akbar (God is Great). It was a total panic. I am very, very lucky.”

Pitoyo Sitanggang said his 9-month-old niece who was travelling with her mother died, possibly trampled by fleeing passengers. “Her mother doesn’t know about it yet. They were separated. She’s being operated on now,” Sitanggang said, sobbing in front of a local morgue.

The dead and injured were taken to five hospitals in Solo, which lies in the heart of Indonesia’s main island of Java. Among the dead was a legislator from Indonesia’s 550-member national Parliament, local media said. “Even though we are trying to remove the plane now, we are still looking for some more possible bodies underneath,” said the airport’s chief commander, Potler Gultom.

Lion Air is a popular local budget carrier, one of many to spring up in Indonesia in recent years.

An executive from the airline, quoted by the official Antara news agency, said the government’s transportation safety board would investigate the accident. The country’s worst air disaster occurred in 1997 when a Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300-B4 crashed in a mountainous area on the island of Sumatra in poor visibility, killing all 234 people on board.

Tomi SOETJIPTO