Indonesia plane crash kills 23, scores escape

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, Mar 7 (Reuters) An Indonesian passenger jet overshot the runway and burst into flames today as it landed in the cultural capital of Yogyakarta, but most of the 140 people on board survived.

Dozens of passengers leapt from the national carrier Garuda Airline plane's emergency exits into surrounding rice paddy fields to escape the inferno, which reduced the plane to a smouldering wreck of twisted metal.

Twenty-three people, including two Australians, died in the crash, health ministry national crisis centre chief Rustam Pakaya said in a late afternoon text message to Reuters.

Earlier a provincial government official had put the toll at 48, while Garuda subsequently said it was 22.

Pujobroto, chief spokesman for Garuda, said flight GA 200 was a Boeing 737-400 plane carrying 133 passengers and seven crew when it crashed at around 0630 hrs IST (0000 GMT) after a scheduled flight from Jakarta.

One survivor told Reuters that passengers had been warned the flight would be turbulent.

''As we approached the ground and I could see roofs from our window, the plane was still swaying and shaking,'' said Ruth Meigi Panggabean, who works for the aid group World Vision.

''Then the plane was slammed to the ground and skidded forward and slammed once again before it came to a stop,'' she said.

The flight was carrying some Australian diplomats, officials and journalists who had been accompanying Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who was not aboard, on a visit to Indonesia.

Downer said five Australians were injured and another four unaccounted for -- an air force liaison staffer, a police officer, an embassy staffer and a journalist.

Garuda's media office said the plane carried just eight Australians, as well as two Japanese, two Brunei nationals and seven other foreigners.

Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the chief security minister to investigate ''non-technical'' matters related to the crash, Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi told reporters.

However, Downer and Australian Prime Minister John Howard said they had received no information that would suggest terrorism or sabotage was a factor in the disaster.

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