Searchers spot wreckage of missing Indonesia plane

Associated Press

JAYAPURA, INDONESIA

A search plane has spotted the wreckage of an Indonesian passenger plane that went missing with 54 people onboard, rescue officials said late Sunday.

There was no immediate word if there were any survivors from the crash, which happened in bad weather Sunday in Indonesia’s mountainous easternmost province of Papua.

The Trigana Air Service plane was flying from Papua’s provincial capital, Jayapura, to the Papua city of Oksibil when it lost contact with Oksibil’s airport. Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata said there was no indication that the pilot had made a distress call.

Officials said the wreckage was spotted about 7 miles from Oksibil, and Henry Bambang Soelistyo, the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said search and rescue teams were preparing to try to reach the crash site by air and foot.

The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers and five crew members on a scheduled 42-minute journey. Five children, including two infants, were among the passengers.

“Smoke was still billowing from the wreckage when it was spotted by a plane search,” said Soelistyo, who is leading the rescue operation from Sentani Airport in Jayapura, adding that bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the wreckage located in a mountainous area at an altitude of about 8,500 feet.

He said elite forces from the Air Force and Army will build a helipad for evacuation purposes near the crash site.

Search planes went into the air early today after residents of a village not far from Oksibil told local police that they saw a plane flying low before crashing into a mountain, said Ludiyanto, who heads the search and rescue operation from Jayapura. Ludiyanto, like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Media reports said all the passengers are Indonesians. The airline has not released a passenger manifest.