Indonesia will hold a mass burial today for scores of unidentified plane crash victims as experts sought to determine what caused the Boeing 737 to slam into a crowded residential area of Medan, killing 149.

Monday's disaster in Indonesia's third-largest city killed 102 of the 117 aboard the Mandala Airlines domestic flight and another 47 people on the ground.

There was still no word on the cause of the accident in this Sumatra island city, where the morgue at Adam Malik hospital was filled to overflowing, forcing authorities to set up a tent outside to keep rain off rows of corpses.

Religious custom in predominantly Muslim Indonesia calls for quick burials of the dead. With many bodies burned beyond recognition, officials planned to give them a mass burial this afternoon.

"There are still 57 unidentified bodies. We have already prepared 57 coffins to be buried in one big hole," said Edi Sofyan, a North Sumatra provincial government spokesman.

He said the burial would take place in a field not far from the airport.

Police watching over the wreckage of the Boeing 737-200 said its black box and flight recorder had been found late on Monday and sent for analysis.

TV footage Tuesday showed uniformed airline staff hugging one another and weeping as the bodies of the two pilots and some crew arrived in Jakarta in flag-draped coffins.

Source: China Daily