Agus Setyobudi, whose brother Agus Indra Kurniawan died in the crash, said his funeral would be held in Malang, East Java, later on Thursday.

"It was my brother's fate to die in this accident. The plane was checked before it took off and it all seemed fine but later it turned into a disaster," he said. TV footage later showed his brother's coffin draped in an Indonesian flag and arriving to a military escort at Malang airport.

OBJECTS RAINED DOWN

The plane had crashed on its landing approach to the Iswahyudi air force base in East Java.

It had been on a regular flight from Jakarta to the Iswahyudi air base in Magetan to transport military personnel and their families. It had been due to fly on to Sulawesi and Papua.

Some eyewitnesses said on Wednesday that one of the wings of the plane had sheared off and objects had rained down from the stricken aircraft built in the 1980s before it crashed.

"I heard a thunderous sound, like a car roaring past. I looked out and a huge plane had crashed into a clump of bamboo. The left wing landed in front of my house," an eyewitness said on Wednesday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged people not to jump to conclusions before an investigation is completed and called for extra measures to ensure flight safety on military missions has the highest priority.

Indonesia has a poor record of air safety and maintenance and has suffered a string of deadly accidents in recent years affecting both commercial and military aircraft.