Indonesian plane carrying 54 people goes missing in Papua

JAYAPURA: A plane carrying 54 people went missing Sunday during a flight in bad weather in remote eastern Indonesia, officials said, in what could be the latest accident to hit the country´s aviation sector.

The plane operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana Air lost contact with air traffic control just before 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) after taking off from Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, the search and rescue agency said.

The ATR 42-300 twin-turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and five crew on the flight which was scheduled to take about 45 minutes, it said.

The agency said the plane disappeared about half an hour into the journey to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains south of Jayapura that is accessible only by aircraft.

Ten minutes before it was due to land, the plane contacted Oksibil control tower asking to descend, Captain Beni Sumaryanto, Trigana Air´s service director of operations, told AFP.

But the plane never arrived. Trigana Air sent another turboprop plane over the same route to look for the missing aircraft but it found nothing during a search in bad weather and headed back to Jayapura, he said.

He added: "Oksibil is a mountainous area where the weather is very unpredictable. It can suddenly turn foggy, dark and windy without warning.

"We strongly suspect it´s a weather issue. It is not overcapacity, as the plane could take 50 passengers."

Papua police spokesman Patridge Renwarin told local TV that residents had reported seeing a plane crash, and local authorities had headed to the area to investigate.

But the hunt was called off as night fell with no news of the missing plane, search and rescue officials said, adding the search would resume early Monday.