Indonesian plane searching for missing aircraft spots debris

There was no word yet on whether anyone might have survived the crash.

The fragments of the Trigana Air flight TGN 267 have been found on Monday by the search plane, but the ground team has still not reached the spot yet, said Raymond Konstantin, an official of the agency.

There are still few details about what actually happened to the Trigana Air Service flight, but what is known is that the plane took off on Sunday from Papua’s provincial capital, Jayapura. The aircraft was flying from Jayapura Sentani Airport (Jayapura) to Oksibil (in Papua region).

Mardin Manurung, an official from the Pegunungan Bintang district administration, told the Jakarta Globe that the plane reportedly crashed into a low-lying mountain in Okbape subdistrict, some 20 kilometers from Oksibil.

The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency on Monday said that the wreckage of the ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was spotted about 7 miles from Oksibil.

A photo of the suspected site showed an area that appeared to be fire-blackened and scattered with debris in thick forest, and Soelistyo said he was “98 percent” certain it was the location of the crash.

Papua, which is Indonesia’s most easterly region, is made up of mostly dense jungle and mountains.

An airliner carrying 54 people crashed Sunday during a short flight in bad weather in Indonesia’s mountainous eastern province of Papua, officials said.

He described the mountain, Mount Tangok, as “not very tall”, adding that when the plane crashed, it was probably 10 minutes away from the Oksibil airport.

All 16 passengers and crew were killed, and an Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee report cited the lack of ground-based navigation aids, poor weather information and “marginal visual meteorological conditions” as contributory causes.

The airline responsible, Trigana Air Service, has been on the European Union’s list of banned carriers since 2007 due to safety and regulatory concerns.

The latest incident comes eight months after an AirAsia plane crashed on its way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.

Indonesia’s president pledged to review the country’s aging air force in July, following a military plane crash that left over 100 people dead.

The aviation sector in Indonesia is expanding fast as the economy booms but airlines are struggling to find enough well-trained personnel to keep up with the rapid growth.