MOSCOW – Helicopters spotted the scattered wreckage of a Russian-made passenger plane on the side of a mist-shrouded mountain today after it disappeared during a demonstration flight in Indonesia with 47 people on board. There was no sign of survivors.
"Rescuers on the helicopters could clearly see the wreckage located at the top of Mount Salak," including the blue-and-white of the aircraft maker, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Search and Rescue National Agency in Indonesia.
"There is no sign of any of the passengers," he said. "We're trying to move in closer to the wreckage now."
BLOG: 'SuperJet' flight goes missing The new Russian Sukhoi passenger jet vanished off radar screens Wednesday 21 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the agency said.
The majority of those on board the Sukhoi Superjet-100 were Indonesian airline representatives, but there were also eight Russians, including pilots and technicians.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said — citing a passenger list — that two Italians, an American and a French citizen were also on the plane.
The crew had asked for permission to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet shortly before contact was lost, according to the national rescue agency. They didn't explain the change of course, the agency said.
Drizzle was falling at the time, but it was not stormy and there was no obvious sign of trouble.
"The crew of the plane was experienced and had sufficient flight time," said a spokesman for Russia's United Aircraft Corp., of which Sukhoi is a part.
There were no reports of any explosions on Mount Salak, although a witness told Indonesian TV the plane had been "veering to one side" as it headed toward the volcano.
The Superjet-100 is the first new model of passenger jet to be produced in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the state-controlled Sukhoi company was hoping to sell about 1,000 over the next two decades.
The plane's success would have done much to boost Russia's moribund aviation industry, whose reputation has been all but destroyed by a series of crashes in recent years.
The plane was on a tour of Asian countries to drum up interest, and the demonstration flight was its second since arriving in Indonesia on Wednesday.
According to Sukhoi, its top managers were heading to Indonesia with officials from Russia's trade ministry and its aviation safety agency.
The Sukhoi Superjet is a midrange airliner that can carry up to 100 passengers. It was produced at the company's Siberian factory and unveiled in 2007. It was the first venture into the commercial aviation market for military plane maker Sukhoi.
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