AP 
 
Jakarta, Jan 3: Rescue teams on Tuesday found the smoldering wreckage of an Indonesian jetliner that went missing over Indonesia's Sulawesi island during a storm, authorities said.

At least 90 of the 102 people on board were killed, a local official said.

"The plane is destroyed and many bodies are around there," said local police chief Col. Genot Hariyanto. Air Force rear commander Eddy Suyanto told el-Shinta radio station that the plane had crashed in a mountainous region in Polewali, west Sulawesi province.

Local mayor Ali Bahal told el-Shinta that at least 90 people were killed. There was no word on the fate of the remaining 12 people on board the Boeing 737-400, which was on a domestic flight from Java island to Sulawesi when it disappeared late on Monday.

Hundreds of people gathered at the airport in Manado seeking information about their missing relatives. Justin Tumurang, 25, was waiting at the airport to pick up her twin sister, but she never arrived. "Being a twin, we share almost every feeling. I felt something was not right, and it grew worse. Now I feel pain," she said.

The 17-year-old plane carried six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children.

Contact was lost about an hour before it was due to land amid very bad weather, national aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said late yesterday. The aircraft's last inspection was on Dec 25 and it had flown 45,371 hours, he said.

Plane crashes in 2006 lowest for over 40 years

Reuters

Geneva: Fewer planes crashed worldwide in 2006 than in any year since 1963, but the 1,292 death toll was in line with the average of the past 10 years, a Geneva-based monitoring agency today reported.

Last year there were 156 plane crashes, 22 fewer than in 2005, while the number of people killed in accidents fell 11 percent compared with the previous year, the Aircraft Crashes Record Office (BAAA) said in a statement.

North America saw the most crashes, with 32 per cent of the total, followed by Africa with 18 per cent and Asia with 17 per cent.

The worst accident occurred in Ukraine, where 170 people were killed when a Tupolev-154 crashed on August 22.

The agency included only planes capable of carrying at least six people.