A Super Puma helicopter crashed in the same area last year, said Sito, a BASARNAS communications operator in Jayapura who goes by one name.
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Onboard the ATR were 49 passengers and five crew members along with 6.5 billion rupiah (0,000) in cash, which were government funds being transported by postal officials for distribution to poor families, according to the head of the Jayapura post office.
Local officials said the weather was just fine when the plane took off, but CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said there were several thunderstorms starting to form over a mountainous area on the plane’s path.
A photo of the suspected site showed an area that appeared to be fire-blackened and scattered with debris in thick forest, and Soelistyo said he was “98 percent” certain it was the location of the crash.
A search plane Monday spotted the wreckage of an airliner that vanished Sunday in a remote, mountainous region of Indonesia with 54 people aboard, but poor weather conditions and rugged terrain were delaying attempts by rescuers to reach the debris.
The reported sighting of the wreckage came after the search and rescue agency, Badan SAR Nasional (BASARNAS), resumed the search Monday morning local time, after it had been suspended for the night.
“The latest information is that the Trigana aircraft that lost contact has been found at Camp 3, Ok Bape district in the Bintang Mountains regency”, Air Transportation Director General Suprasetyo told reporters.
Earlier searchers conducting aerial surveillance spotted what could be the wreckage of the plane about 12 kilometres from Oksibil.
The plane crashed in bad weather Sunday.
And in June, an Indonesian military transport plane crashed soon after taking off from the city of Medan, killing at least 135 people.
The aircraft was spotted by villagers seven miles from its destination, into Tangok mountain found in the remote eastern province of Okbape, but the information still has to be verified.
Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process.
From 2007 to 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.
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Indonesia has suffered two major air accidents in the past year, including the AirAsia crash.
