CNN - Relatives sift through corpses of jet crash victims

MEDAN, Indonesia (CNN) -- Relatives of victims killed in an Indonesian plane crash carried out the grim task of trying to identify loved ones Sunday, scrutinizing mangled and charred corpses for a familiar piece of clothing or clot of hair.

In an open area outside a hospital in the northern Sumatran city of Medan, Wati Batiar and other mourners covered their faces with masks and cloths as they walked along rows of more than 100 unidentified remains. Flies covered the tarpaulins and coffins containing the bodies.

Batiar's husband was one of 234 people killed aboard Garuda Airlines Flight GA-152 when it slammed into a mountainside shortly before landing Friday. About 300 grieving relatives were flown in from the Indonesian capital Jakarta Sunday to claim bodies.

"I still have not been able to find his body. That's the worst thing," she cried.

Nearby, a policeman picked up part of a jaw, with teeth attached, and showed it to a woman and her children, asking if they recognized the body part.

"No," said the widow. "My husband had a gold tooth. That's not him."

When mourners identified a body, the coffin was loaded in an ambulance and taken away for burial, or to Medan's Polina Airport where the bodies were to be flown to Jakarta.

Relatives wept and prayed in the airport hall ahead of the long return flight. Ground coffee beans and mothballs were strewn over the airport's floor to fight the stench of decomposition.

Bodies not identified by 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) Monday were to be buried in a mass funeral at a cemetery where 57 victims of a 1979 Garuda commuter plane crash are already buried. So far, 123 bodies have been identified, the official Antara news agency reported.

President Suharto ordered the mass funeral because most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and already quickly decaying. Many relatives didn't like the idea of such a funeral, but were accepting of it.

"We have to go along with what the government decided," said U.B.R. Simandgundak, 67, who had been unable to find a coffin with his brother's body, although the name was listed on a blackboard. "We are sad, of course. But what can we do?"

Meanwhile, at the crash site about 20 miles (32 km) north of Medan, investigators launched an intensive search for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders that could help explain why the jetliner crashed.

It was unclear what role, if any, haze from the region's heavy forest fires played in the crash. The pilot reportedly radioed Medan air traffic controllers for guidance minutes before the crash, complaining of low visibility because of the smoke.

Some witnesses, however, have said the plane was in trouble -- possibly with an engine fire -- before it crashed.