An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 54 people lost
contact with air traffic control Sunday during a flight in the
rugged easternmost province of Papua, officials said.
The Trigana Air ATR 42 turboprop plane lost contact just before
3:00 pm (0600 GMT) after taking off from Sentani airport in Papua's
capital Jayapura on a flight to Oksibil, the search and rescue
agency said on Twitter.
The plane was carrying 44 adults, five children and five crew on
the flight which was scheduled to take about 45 minutes, the agency
said. It had left Jayapura about half an hour before it
disappeared, it added.
Transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata confirmed the plane had
lost contact and said it was supposed to arrive at Oksibil airport
just after 3:00 pm.
"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."
Trigana Air is an Indonesian airline.
Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record. In December an
AirAsia plane flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to
Singapore crashed in the Java Sea during stormy weather, killing
all 162 people on board.
-- AFP