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Passenger plane with ten people on board reported missing in eastern Indonesia

A passenger plane carrying 10 people has been reported missing in Eastern Indonesia.

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The small plane, operated by charter service Aviastar, lost radio contact shortly after it took off from Masamba in South Sulawesi.

The plane, owned by Aviastar Mandiri airlines, was travelling between Masamba and Makassar.

Aviastar, which flies domestic routes, said it contacted search authorities after it lost contact with the aircraft in the mid-afternoon.

Basarnas chief Air Marshall Sulistyo said that his agency alone had deployed at least 100 officials, adding that he would be leaving for Makassar on Friday night to coordinate the search effort.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata said: “We are still confirming the area where the flight went missing”.

In August an Indonesian flight went missing over Papua.

The plane was headed for Makassar, the provincial capital.

A sprawling archipelago Indonesia of almost 250 million people in recent years has been plagued by transportation accidents, that includes train and plane crashes and ferry sinkings.

Indonesian aviation – both civilian and military – has suffered a number of blows to its record.

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On December 28, a flight of AirAsia’s Indonesia subsidiary crashed in the Java Sea with 162 people on board.

A man inspect a white board with details about a plane that went missing on Sulawesi Island, at the crisis center at Sultan Hasanuddin airport in Makassar South Sulawesi Indonesia Friday Oct. 2 2015. Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata