Indonesian aircraft with 54 on board missing in Papua region. RIP...

[makapaaa]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesian-aircraft-with/2053882.html?cid=twtcna

[h=1]Indonesian aircraft with 54 on board missing in Papua region: Officials[/h][h=2]An Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft carrying 54 people lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday (Aug 16) in the remote eastern Papua region, the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said.[/h]

• POSTED: 16 Aug 2015 17:16
• UPDATED: 16 Aug 2015 22:06

• PHOTOS

Photo from Trigana Air Service from the airline's Twitter page.







JAKARTA: An Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft carrying 54 people lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday (Aug 16) in the remote eastern Papua region, the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said.
"We can't confirm it has crashed. We can say contact has been lost with the plane," BASARNAS chief Bambang Soelystyo told Reuters by phone. "It's a Trigana airline plane carrying 54 people including five crew. We are working to get more details."

According to the official BASARNAS Twitter account, the ATR 42 turboprop aircraft belonging to Trigana Air Service was carrying 44 adult passengers, five crew and five children and infants.
The Trigana Air ATR 42 turboprop plane lost contact just before 3:00 pm (2.00pm Singapore time) after taking off from Sentani airport in Papua's capital Jayapura on a flight to Oksibil, the search and rescue agency said on Twitter. It was supposed to arrive at Oksibil airport just after 3:00 pm.

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. Half an hour later, Trigana Air sent another turboprop plane over the same route to look for the missing aircraft, he said.

"But the weather was very bad, it could not find it and the plane was turned back to Sentani," Sumaryanto said.

He added: "Oksibil is a mountainous area where 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."

Villagers in Papua reported that they had found the missing plane, which had crashed, a transport ministry official said.

"The plane has been found (by villagers). According to residents, the flight had crashed into a mountain. Verification is still in process," said the transport ministry's director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, who goes by one name.

'VERY BAD WEATHER'
Transport ministry spokesman J A Barata confirmed the plane had lost contact.

"We are not sure what happened to the plane yet and we are coordinating with local authorities," he told AFP. "The weather is currently very bad there, it's very dark and cloudy. It's not conducive for a search. The area is mountainous."

BASARNAS was coordinating the search, a separate tweet read as dusk set in in the tropics. 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 on Monday.

Trigana Air is a small Indonesian airline established in 1991 that operates domestic services to around 40 destinations in Indonesia. The airline has a fleet of 14 aircraft, according to the airfleets.com database. These include 10 ATR aircraft and four Boeing 737 classics. These have an average age of 26.6 years, according to the database.

The missing plane was not equipped with the ADS-B flight transponder that broadcasts its location, according to air traffic tracker flightradar24.

Small aircraft are commonly used for transport in remote, mountainous Papua, and bad weather has caused several accidents in recent years.

On Wednesday, a Cessna propeller plane operated by Indonesian company Komala Air crashed in Papua's Yahukimo district, killing one person and seriously injuring the five others on board. Officials suspect that crash was caused by bad weather.

Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record and has seen two major plane crashes in the past year, including an AirAsia flight that went down in the Java Sea, killing all on board.
That crash prompted the government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.

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.


- Reuters/AFP/xq/ec

 

[makapaaa]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33951854

[h=1]Indonesia passenger plane wreckage located in remote Papua[/h]

• 1 hour ago
  
• From the section Asia

The missing plane, pictured in 2010 The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been spotted in the remote western Papua region, officials say.
The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil.
Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found by local people in the Bintang highlands region.

A search plane has also now spotted suspected debris.

Indonesia's postal office has told the BBC that the plane was carrying four bags containing cash, about 6.5 billion rupiah ($486,000; £300,000), for villagers living in remote places in Papua.

"Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there," said the head of Jayapura's post office, Haryono, who goes by only his first name.
[h=2]'Pray together'[/h]The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. It is not yet known if anyone survived.

It took off from Sentani airport in Jayapura at 14:21, but lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour later.

Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near a waterfall by a search plane on Monday, and that ground teams were preparing to head to the area.

Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, told AP news agency that "smoke was still billowing" from the debris spotted by their plane. He said bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the site.

Villagers had earlier told officials that a plane had crashed into a mountain.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his condolences on Twitter and called for the country to "pray together" for the victims.

Family members have been waiting for news of their loved ones Oksibil, which is about 280km (175 miles) south of Jayapura, is a remote, mountainous region, which is extremely difficult to navigate.

Bad weather is believed to have been a possible reason for the crash.

The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions.
[h=2]On blacklist[/h]Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

It has been on a European Union blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. All but four of Indonesia's certified airlines are on the list.

Indonesia has suffered two major air disasters in the past year.

Last December an AirAsia plane crashed in the Java Sea, killing all 192 people on board - and in July a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan, Sumatra claiming 140 lives.