Spotlight on Indonesia military's 'airline'

Janson Sinaga took his brother Sahat, Sahat's wife Rasia, their daughter and two other relatives to the military airport at 04:00 on that fateful Tuesday.

Sahat's family was visiting Medan, Indonesia's third largest city, from Ranai, a quiet town in the remote Natuna islands off Sumatra.
The family took a commercial flight to Medan, but to make their way home, Sahat decided to take a military transport plane because, he said, "it's more direct and it's cheaper", Janson remembers.
The C130 Hercules crashed shortly after takeoff, killing everybody on board. Janson lost five of his relatives.

Hitching a ride

While people around the world might have wondered how civilians could use a military aircraft for transport, Indonesians in places like Natuna islands see it as quite normal.
The islands are dots on the South China Sea, closer to the Malaysian part of Borneo than any large Indonesian cities. Only one commercial airline operates routine flights there and it does not take people very far.