Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata says a plane belonging to Trigana Air Service lost contact Sunday afternoon while flying from Jayapura, Papua’s provincial capital, to the Papua city of Okisibil.
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Oksibilwas hit by poor weather conditions with heavy rain and strong winds and fog when the plane lost contact with the airport.
An Indonesian transport official has confirmed a missing Trigana Air aircraft has crashed in the Oktabe district of Papua province.
The plane had been scheduled to land at a small airport in Oksibil at around 3pm local time (06:00 GMT).
Indonesia’s transport minister has revealed in a statement that the wreckage has been found by villagers in the Bintang highlands region of Oksibil. There was no indication that the pilot had made a distress call, he said.
According to the aircraft’s flight manifest, Capt.Hasanudin’s crew comprised co-pilot Aryadin, mechanic officer Mario and female flight attendants, Ika and Dita.
Indonesian search and rescue agencies are hunting for an aircraft that disappeared over a remote area of Papua with 54 people on board. Trigana Air Service was carrying 44 adult passengers, five crew and five children and infants. All but four of Indonesia’s certified airlines are on the list.
“The weather is now very bad there”.
Last December, an AirAsia plane traveling from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore crashed in the Java Sea during bad weather, claiming the lives of all 162 people on board.
Reuters adds a few dark footnotes, including that Trigana has been banned from flying in European airspace since 2007 over safety concerns.
Indonesia has had two major crashes in the past year.
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According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 had its first flight 27 years ago.
