As more than 100 people were feared dead after a transport plane crashed in a residential area of the Indonesian city of Medan, Zimbabweans rushed to break their ubuntu by expressing a wish that 91 year old president Robert Mugabe should have been in the accident.
Mugabe and his wife Grace regularly frequent Indonesia.
“Why wasn’t our president and at least his wife Grace in Indonesia today at this timely moment?” asked one Gerald K(surname withheld).
“I am waiting for that day when our heaven-hell bound president will be assisted into the sky and beyond never to return,” added another user writing on micro blogging website Twitter of the president who has ruled Zimbabwe 36 years away from British independence to date and has shown no sign of desiring to retire refusing also to declare his succession plan, leaving citizens to conclude that he intends to die with the country in his ageing hands.
“What Bob does not realise is that he is creating a curse for his family, the kids and that young wife of his,” added one Mary ( surname withheld).
Meanwhile it was reported that the Hercules C-130 plane hit two houses and a hotel before bursting into flames, creating a huge fireball. Air Force head Agus Supriatna visited the crash site and told reporters he believed there were no survivors among the 113 people on board.
About 50 bodies have been taken to hospital – others are being recovered. A major rescue operation is under way at the site which was covered in flames and thick black smoke.
The BBC’s Alice Budisatrijo in Jakarta says that only the tail of the aircraft is still recognisable; the rest has been reduced to debris.
The correspondent said that there are reports that people are trapped inside wrecked buildings and the nearest hospital is continuing to receive bodies arriving from the crash site.
It is too early to know exactly how many people were killed in the disaster, or what caused it, the correspondent said. Large crowds watched the emergency services search the flaming wreckage. The plane had just taken off when it ran into trouble.
“It passed overhead a few times, really low,” a witness told the Reuters news agency.
“There was fire and black smoke. The third time it came by it crashed into the roof of the hotel and exploded straight away.”
Mr Supriatna said that the pilot had asked to return to base because of technical difficulties.
“The plane crashed while it was turning right to return to the airport,” he said.
The Hercules transport plane was manufactured in 1964, but a military spokesman said he was convinced that it was in good condition.
Correspondents say that it is the second time in 10 years that a plane has crashed in Medan.
In September 2005, a Boeing 737 came down in a crowded residential area shortly after take-off from Medan’s Polonia airport, killing 143 people including 30 on the ground.