• Indonesian rescuers find bodies near wreckage of jet that 'fell' from sky

    AFP - Getty Images

    Debris from the crashed Sukhoi Superjet-100 is seen on the slope of Salak Mountain in Indonesia on Thursday.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: Indonesian rescuers said Thursday that they had discovered bodies near the wreckage of a Russian-made airliner that disappeared from radar south of the capital Jakarta.

    The crew of a helicopter searching for the jet had earlier spotted debris on the edge of a cliff in a mountainous area at 5,500 feet, a senior rescue official said.


    The Sukhoi Superjet-100, carrying up to 50 people, lost contact with air traffic controllers during a demonstration flight Wednesday, officials said.

    The Indonesian military said the plane "fell" from the sky, Reuters reported.

    "The airplane crashed at the edge of Salak mountain," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a news conference. "An investigation must be done immediately and thoroughly."

    Search and rescue teams reached the rugged site on Thursday afternoon local time and saw several bodies, The Associated Press reported. Spokesman Gagah Prakoso said the bodies would be placed in nets and lifted by ropes to hovering helicopters.

    Adek Berry / AFP - Getty Images

    Indonesian soldiers along with members of a search and rescue team try to reach the site of the wreckage.

    A photo taken from the rescue helicopter that found the debris appeared to show that the plane flew into an almost vertical wall of rock on an inaccessible part of the mountain.

    Small pieces of white debris could be seen scattered down an exposed stretch of cliff surrounded by forest. Rescue officials said earlier that the walk to the site would take at least six hours.

    'Completely ready to fly'
    The aircraft was carrying Indonesian businessmen, Russian Embassy officials and journalists. Dimitry Solodov from the embassy said there were eight Russians on board, including pilots and technicians.

    Those on board included eight crew and 42 guests, according to figures from the Russian Embassy.

    The flight took off from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport at about 2 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) and disappeared from radar near the 7,200-foot Mount Salak in West Java, national search agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso told The Associated Press. It had been scheduled to return 50 minutes later.

    AFP - Getty Images

    A handout photo provided by Sergey Dolya shows Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 taking off for a demonstration flight in Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma airport, on May 9.

    Citing an official, Reuters reported that radio contact was lost with the plane after it descended from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet.

    "I saw a big plane passing just over my house," said Juanda, a villager who lives near Mount Salak told local station TVOne. "It was veering a bit to one side, the engine roaring. It seemed to be heading toward Salak, but I didn't hear an explosion or anything."

    Olga Kayukova, a spokeswoman for Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, told Reuters the Sukhoi Superjet-100 was making a second flight as part of the demonstration program.

    "The first flight was carried out in a normal mode ... The pre-flight preparations were carried out in full and the plane was completely ready to fly," she said. "According to information from Indonesia, the contact with the plane was broken after 20 minutes from the take-off ...  search works are under way."

    An Indonesian charter airline Sky Aviation posted on its Facebook account what it said was a picture of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 at the airport.

    Russia Today reported that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a special commission to investigate the incident. Relatives of passengers that had gathered at the airport began crying when news of the wreckage was announced, according to the Russia Today story.

    Mast Irham / EPA

    Relatives of passengers on the missing Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft react as they check the list of the passangers at Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 9.

    With a capacity of up to 103 passengers, the Sukhoi's Superjet-100 was developed in partnership with Boeing and Italy's Finmeccanica. The plane is the first completely new airliner designed by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    The missing plane was on the fourth stop of a six-nation "Welcome Asia!" roadshow after having already been to Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

    It was supposed to head next to Laos and Vietnam. Russia has hoped that the short- to mid-range jet, which made its maiden run in 2008, will help it break into international markets dominated by Boeing and Airbus.

    Sukhoi, which has orders for 170 planes, plans to produce up to 1,000 Superjets, primarily for foreign markets.

    Msnbc.com staff, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Iran state television displays downed US drone

    Iran claims it has video of the high-tech U.S. drone that crashed last week, but U.S. officials have not confirmed this claim. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By The Associated Press

    TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian state TV broadcast video Thursday of what it said was the high-tech U.S. drone that Tehran says its forces downed earlier this week.

    The more than two minutes of footage showed Iranian military officials inspecting what state TV identified as the RQ-170 Sentinel drone. The cream-colored aircraft appeared intact and undamaged.

    The chief of the aerospace division of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Ami Ali Hajizadeh, said Iranian forces brought the aircraft down with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone.

    "It was downed through a joint operation by the Guards and Iran's regular army," he told state television.

    Iranian state radio has said the unmanned aircraft was detected over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan.

    Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. military officials and others were studying the imagery but would have no further comment. "We're just not going to talk about these kinds of missions and these kinds of capabilities," Kirby told reporters in Washington.

    Tehran appeared to be using the video footage to score propaganda points, and a banner at the foot of the aircraft in the video read "The U.S. cannot do a damn thing" — a quotation from Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini.

    Some Western experts questioned whether the aircraft in the video was indeed an RQ-170.

    John Pike, an expert on military and intelligence technology for GlobalSecurity.org, said in an email that the drone shown on Iranian TV looked like "a parade float model of a Sentinel" rather than the high-tech robotic surveillance aircraft itself.

    He said that the shape of the aircraft differed from that shown in most other photographs of the Sentinel, and that it was in better shape than would be expected after a crash. "I'm guessing this is a mock-up they have prepared for a parade," he said.

    Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said the Defense Department would not be saying one way or another whether the Iranian images are that of the U.S. drone.

    Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss ambassador on Thursday to protest the drone's "invasion" of Iranian airspace, according to state TV. It said the ministry demanded an explanation and compensation from Washington.

    The U.S. and Iran do not have diplomatic relations, and Switzerland represents American interests in Iran.

    U.S. officials have acknowledged the drone's loss. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter, said they are not sure what the Iranians will be able to glean technologically from what they found. It is unlikely that Iran would be able to recover any surveillance data from the aircraft.

    Iran confirmed for the first time in 2005 that the U.S. has been flying surveillance drones over its airspace to spy on its military and nuclear facilities. The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

    U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss classified information, have said the drone and other stealth craft like it have spied on Iran for years from a U.S. air base in Afghanistan, and other bases in the region.

    In January, Tehran said two pilotless spy planes shot down over its airspace were operated by the U.S., and in July, media said Iranian military officials showed Russian experts several U.S. drones reportedly shot down in recent years.

    Faced with international sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, Iran has been trying to build up its own military technology.

    It unveiled its first domestically built unmanned bomber in 2010, calling the aircraft an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies. Two year earlier, Tehran announced it had built an unmanned aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), far enough to reach Israel.

    Both Israel and the United States have not ruled out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities, which the West suspects aim to make atomic weapons - a charge Iran denies.

    __—

    Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.

     

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