Asia-Pacific

Indonesia plane with 54 people on board found crashed

Domestic passenger aircraft lost contact with air traffic control in eastern Papua region

The National Search and Rescue Agency has confirmed contact was lost with a passenger plane carrying 54 passengers in Papua, Indonesia.

Sun Aug 16 2015 - 16:15

An Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft carrying 54 people has crashed in the Oktabe area of Papua, a government official said on Sunday.

The plane had been missing for several hours after losing contact with air traffic control in the eastern part of Indonesia, according to Indonesia's transport minster.

“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.

File photograph of a Trigana Air plane at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia. A plane belonging to the airline has gone missing over Papua ; 54 people are believed to be on board. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA

A map showing Sentani Airport, where the missing plane departed from on Sunday. Photograph: Google Maps

“Residents provided information that the aircraft crashed into Tangok mountain.“

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There was no immediate word on whether anyone survived.

The plane was flying between Jayapura’s Sentani airport and Oksibil, the capital of Papua province.

Transport ministry spokesman Julius Barata said the ATR 42-300 twin turboprop lost contact with the airport nine minutes before it was scheduled to land.

Authorities worked to verify reports from eyewitnesses, dispatching search parties and troops to look for the wreckage.

Aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said: “There are a number of eyewitnesses who have said they saw the plane crash in the valley before the airport.”

Trigana, a local airline founded in 1991, operates in challenging regions of the Indonesian archipelago, often in small and remote areas such as West Papua.

“It’s mountainous, very remote and the airfield runways are sometimes on the side of a hill so it is not really an area for the faint-hearted to fly,” Soejatman said. “There are bound to be accidents.”

Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network’s online database.

Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft.

The airline has been on the EU list of banned carriers since 2007. Those on the list cannot operate in European airspace because of concerns about either their safety standards, or the standard of regulation in their home country.

Trigana operates aircraft with 10 ATR planes and four Boeing 737 that are an average of 26.6 years old.

Indonesia, a country of 250 million people and made up of about 17,000 islands, is one of Asia’s fastest-growing aviation markets but has a poor air safety record.

It struggles to provide enough qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure adequate safety levels.

In January an AirAsia Airbus A320 flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore crashed into the Java sea, killing all 162 people on board. The crash prompted the Indonesian government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.

Last month Indonesia’s president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing more than 100 people.

Indonesia’s president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet in July after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing more than 100 people.

Agencies

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