Engine Trouble Preceded Indonesia Crash, Paper Says

HANOI — The pilot of a plane that slammed into a hillside plantation in Sumatra had reported some trouble with his left engine when he radioed the control tower requesting guidance in landing because of low visibility in a fire-induced haze, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The ill-fated flight from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, to Medan in northern Sumatra crashed 30 miles short of its destination Friday. None of the 234 passengers and crew on board survived, Indonesian authorities said. Four passengers were American, a U.S. Embassy spokesman told the Associated Press.

Although the cause of the crash remains under investigation and the black box containing flight data has not yet been found, there has been speculation that the bush fires that have cut through more than 750,000 acres in drought-stricken regions of Indonesia may have created conditions contributing to the crash. Sumatra is one of more than 13,500 islands that make up Indonesia.

But aviation authorities in Jakarta noted that Medan’s Polonia airport is equipped with an international Category 1 Instrument Landing System, which allows landing in low visibility. No warning of hazardous conditions was in effect at the time of the crash, news reports said, although visibility was about one mile Friday. Medan’s Waspada newspaper quoted unnamed sources in its report on the pilot telling of engine trouble.

Polonia has been closed intermittently during the past week because of the thick cloud of haze that hangs over large sections of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand. Three other airports in Sumatra were closed this weekend because of the smog-like shroud, the Indonesia Times newspaper said.

Most of the Indonesian fires were deliberately set by companies that operate plantations and timber forests, in an effort to clear the land of bush. Despite the efforts of firefighters, officials said only monsoon rains can bring the crisis under control. The monsoons have been delayed this season by dry conditions created by a weather phenomenon known as El Nino.

Indonesia has declared a national disaster but not yet a state of emergency, as Malaysia did last week in parts of the country, including Kuching, a city of 450,000, where schools, businesses and nonessential government offices closed.

Tens of thousands of people in affected regions of Southeast Asia have become sick in the past few weeks, particularly with respiratory diseases, and the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, has advised its officials to leave the country if smog makes them sick.

The fire-induced conditions are exacerbated by industrial and traffic fumes, mixed with dust from the parched earth. The sight of factories belching unfiltered smoke into the air is common in most Asian cities.