The accident at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta occurred at 08:15 a.m. local time when the plane was about to take off for an exercise to secure the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Asian African Conference in Jakarta and Bandung city, said Air Marshal Hadi Cahyanto, spokesman of the Indonesian air force.
“The plane was on fire before flying for an exercise for security of the conference,” he told China’s Xinhua news agency.
The pilot escaped and an investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the accident, Cahyanto said.
The Asian-African or Afro-Asian Conference — also known as the Bandung Conference — was a meeting of 25 Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on April 18–24, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia.
The conference was an important step toward the Non-Aligned Movement.
