“Rescuers in helicopters could clearly see the wreckage located at the top of Mount Salak,” including the blue-and-white emblem of the aircraft maker, says Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Agency.

Russia is preparing to send two IL-76 rescue freighters with helicopters on board.

“Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is ready to send rescue workers, two IL-76 jets and two BK-117 helicopters and rescue equipment to the crash site,” a representative of the ministry’s information department told journalists on Thursday.

The scattered debris of the Russian-made plane was spotted on a slope of Salak, a volcano in Java’s west, around the coordinates, at which it disappeared from the screens.

Ali Umri Lubis, a spokesman for a nearby military airbase, says the plane was spotted in the Cijeruk area, near Mount Salak, close to the city of Bogor in West Java. The plane went down at an elevation of about 1,500 meters (5,000 feet)

Three helicopters and over 600 rescuers resumed the search operation around Salak on Thursday morning. Previously, Indonesian authorities had been expressing hope that the plane had made an emergency landing. But the country’s Emergency Agency chief, Ketut Parwa, admitted that if there had been an emergency landing, information would by now have been received via radio or phone calls.

The latest reports suggest there were 48 people on board, including Indonesian businessmen, Russian embassy officials, journalists and the crew members. The first reports had suggested the plane took off carrying 50 people. Later, the number given was 45.

The crew members and all passengers on board the Sukhoi SuperJet-100 were covered by insurance worth US $300 million, provided by Rosgosstrakh Russian group of companies.

Indonesia’s Mount Salak has already been the site of several crashes. Prior to the Sukhoi jet coming down on Wednesday, three people died when their training aircraft crashed near Cibunar village, northwest of the Mount. The incident with the greatest loss of life before the Sukhoi crash involved an Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) jet in June 2008, and killed 18 people. Crashes near or on Mt. Salak also killed seven in October 2003, two in April 2004, five in June 2004 and one in October 2002.

Russia’s first all-new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union disappeared from radar screens south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Wednesday, 21 minutes into what was meant to be a brief demonstration flight. The craft was taking part in an international air show in Indonesia when it got lost around Salakat about 0800 GMT, after descending to 6,000 feet.

President Putin has sent condolences to his Indonesian counterpart after the tragic death of Indonesian nationals on board the jet. He ordered Russian experts to take an active part in the investigation.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a special commission comprising members of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and the airplane manufacturer to investigate the incident.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over possible flight security violations.

“The investigators will estimate the crew’s flight preparation procedure and the technical condition of the jet before it left Russia,” the spokesman for the Committee Vladimir Markin told journalists on Thursday.

The investigators will also question technical staff responsible for preparing the vehicle for the flight and employees of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company, who had any relation to the construction of the jet and its preparation for operation.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has announced that local aviation experts will take part in the probe alongside the Russian specialists.

If by any chance the disaster was due to showoff, Sukhoi should be penalized severely for endangering so many precious lives.

http://rt.com/news/russian-plane-missing-indonesia-877/

Very very tragic indeed. I feel so sorry for those on board. RIP

http://rt.com/news/russian-plane-missing-indonesia-877/

As Jo Asakura pointed out and as earlier said by Ananda …. the deal was already made, so an outright showoff can be ruled out.

According to Local Information. The Two Indonesian Airliners (Kartika Air and Sky Aviation) that their representatives made largest portion of passengers in the demo flight, already put an order for 30 Sukhoi 100. 18 for Kartika, and 12 for Sky.

below is two crucial info that, if accurate, would help judge the accident.

It crashed into Mount Salak “around 1.5km [one mile] from the spot where the plane last made contact“, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on television earlier in the day.

At 14:50, it was recorded as dropping from 10,000ft (3,000m) to 6,000ft near Salak, a peak measuring 7,200ft (2,200m).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18015534

I can even imagine what the pilot would have seen….its pretty damn & scary to think about. 😮

The pilot asks for permission to descent and the ATC give permission (??) …..the the next moment the pilots finds themselves in front of a mountain. How much time would have needed to crash into that moment after descending to the lower altitude??

Even if I take a very low figure of 200knots, it means in just a second the aircraft would have flown 6.2Km. But from the above info, the plane crashed into the mountains just 1.5Km from the last reported contact with ATC. Which means (??), the aircraft descended right onto the mountain top and not did even have a second to know what was ahead??? 😮

ADA/HAL and NFTC to get help from the US Navy for the testing phase of the N-LCA

link to article

American fans would be very happy on hearing this…..this is not going to be uneventful… people have not learnt their lesson with American consultancy from the past.

Is that 500Kgs over the weight of the LCA mark 1 with the limitation of 8g? or is it 500Kgs over the weight of the original LCA design goals of 9g?

NLCA will be heavier to its air force variant for sure. And if it mentions that the aircraft that flew or what is currently ready is overweight, it is most likely to mean that it is above the intended weight for the NLCA. Or maybe it is from the LCA mk1….

This is what Trishul blogspot had to say about the article on INS Vikramaditya and Pr.11356 batch 2.

The pages were from the in-house publication of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corp, which was distributed during the trade show days at DEFEXPO 2012. This issue is a collector’s item since it contains several more pages detailing USSR/Russia-India cooperation in naval matters from the start till to date.

one interesting point I missed earlier was in the opening para of the article itself…

Our successful cooperation is well exemplified by the joint development of the radically new combat command information system for project 17 capable of controlling weapons operated by not only a single ship, but by a whole naval force.

who is this “our” mentioned in the article w.r.t to the joint development of the combat command information system?

At least for me it was somewhat new info…. If this combat management system or Combat Command Information System (CCIS), as Russian developers terms it, is common for all the Talwar class frigates and the Shivalik class…..it would mean Indian Navy have at least 5 ships that is completely networked. This now makes me believe more that Talwar class and Shivalik class are going to be the main surface combatants of the INS Vikramaditya group and the Delhi class is going to be left out. A fleet that is completely networked would be the better option anyway.

Any thoughts and info on the above quote from USC publication?

Yep, all operational aside from a few old abandoned trailers.

The Ria video doesn’t really have any interesting info written, just standard missile info we all know.

I was talking about the video in this link…
http://saidpvo.livejournal.com/53161.html

any highlights from that video report?

Last years (August 2011) news article….

Russian army to receive 120 Iskander tactical missile systems
02/08/2011
MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti)

The Russian Defense Ministry is planning to buy up to 120 Iskander-M tactical missile systems, Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov said.

“We purchased six [Iskander] systems in 2010, and plan to acquire up to 120 more,” Bulgakov told a news conference in Moscow on Monday.

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110802/165508090.html

AFAIK, there is still no Iskander-K missile delivery and all that were delivered till now are Iskander-M only.
which means all the 6 systems from 2010 is BM and number will be 24 missiles. Article few years back talked about army to receive 60 missiles (or was it 60 systems??) by 2015.

And from this article from last August, it is 120 systems in addition to the 6 systems already delivered earlier. That makes 126 systems and may be all are Iskander-M missile? If we are talking about Iskander-M for these 126 systems, we are talking about over 500 x Iskander-M missiles. Is it true?

Also, how many missiles does the army have now?

^^^ It does look a little like Iskander….

U.S. Expresses Support for S.Korea Missile Program
WASHINGTON, May 4 (RIA Novosti)

The U.S. Department of State sees no threat in South Korea’s ballistic missile program and is set to continue its support for Seoul’s efforts to boost the country’s defense capabilities.

The announcement was made after media reports that South Korea designed ballistic missiles with a range than 300 km.

full article…