KNKT not to join investigation of Hercules plane crash

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT) will not investigate the cause of the Air Force Hercules plane which crashed in Magetan, East Java on Wednesday morning, a minister said.

"KNKT will not join (investigating the plane crash)," Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said here on Wednesday when answering a question from the press after inaugurating Lion Village Facility which belongs to Lion Air in Cengkareng international airport, Tangerang, Banten province, Wednesday.

Normally in military air transportation, there is a military mission assigned to handle an investigation, the minister said, while expressing deep condolences to the berieved family the dead victims.

The Air Force Hercules plane carrying a many passengers was flying from Jakarta to Madiun, East Java, crashed into a rice field at Geplak village,Magetan, at about 6:20 a.m. Wednesday, or a few minutes before landing at Madiun`s Iswahyudi military airbase, Air Force spokesman Rear Marshal Bambang S said. (*)