Trudging halfway up a jagged goat trail, guide Muhammad Ibrahim extolled the panoramic view — a vast, ancient landscape of russet-hued cliffs that is on the frontline of Afghan efforts to jumpstart warzone tourism. (Photo: AFP)
"Everyone panicked and screamed," Tumpak Naibaho, a 27-year-old tyre repairman, told AFP, adding there were hundreds of people in the area when the crash happened around midday. (Photo: AP)
New witness accounts emerged of terrifying scenes, with one man describing how the plane flew low and then smashed into a building, producing "flames as high as four storeys". (Photo: AP)
As more bodies were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital, police put the total death toll at 142, indicating a growing number of fatalities in the neighbourhood where the plane crashed. (Photo: AP)
But the air force has repeatedly revised up the number of people on the plane -- it initially indicated there were only 12 crew -- raising questions about poor management and whether there were paying civilians on board in violation of military
Many of those on board the flight to an island off Sumatra, which was carrying 122 people, were believed to be servicemen and women and their families. (Photo: AP)
Buildings were severely damaged, cars reduced to flaming wrecks and the plane itself was almost completely destroyed, with the mangled tail the only part of the 51-year-old aircraft still recognisable after the disaster. (Photo: AP)
The Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed into a residential area of Medan on Tuesday, shortly after taking off from an airbase in the city on Sumatra island. (Photo: AP)
Afghanistan's Bamiyan on frontline of warzone tourism