The Mandala Airlines jet bound for Jakarta slammed into buildings just outside the perimeter of Medan's Polonia Airport early in the morning, killing 104 of its 117 passengers and crew and 39 people on the ground.
The updated figures were given by acting North Sumatra governor Rudolf Pardede.
"The dead victims total 143, composed of 104 passengers and crew and 39 residents," Pardede said in a statement in the country's third biggest city.
"The surviving passengers currently under treatment number 13," he said, adding that four residents were still in hospital.
Local Red Cross official Heriansyah said bodies were believed still under the wreckage, which was scattered in hundreds of metres. Many of the dead on the ground were minibus passengers hit by debris.
Some 30 houses were damaged and gutted by fire. Wreckage of the plane and at least five burnt vehicles littered the usually busy main avenue bordering the airport.
Corpses were gathered for identification at Adam Malik, the hospital nearest the airport. Most were charred beyond recognition and many were incomplete.
Crumpled vehicles, bicycles and destroyed houses littered the area, where soldiers and police earlier carried away charred and mutilated corpses and struggled to keep curious crowds at bay.
Passenger Rohadi Sitepu told Metro Television from hospital that he and five other people seated in the back of the plane in Row 20 had all survived.
Mandala Airlines, which is partly owned by the Indonesian military, said it was too early to ascertain the cause of the crash but that the 24-year-old aircraft had undergone extensive safety tests in June.
The head of the National Transport Safety Committee, Setyo Raharjo, told the Kompas online the flight recorder had already been found. Seven committee members were now on site to investigate the crash, he said.
Several senior government officials were on the plane including Governor Nurdin, who was heading to the capital for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said provincial spokesman Edi Sofyan.