AIRLINER MISSING Indonesia jet carrying 54 loses contact over Papua

“Lost contact with plane”, BASARNAS chief Bambang Soelystyo told Reuters by phone.

The National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said the domestic Trigana Air Service was carrying 49 passengers – including five children – and five crew members.

In December, a plane belonging to the Indonesian unit of AirAsia Bhd. crashed into the ocean, killing all on board.

The agency’s Jayapura office is coordinating a search for the plane.

The wreckage of the missing Indonesian plane carrying 54 passengers has been found by villagers in the remote western Papau region, according to officials.

Although the Indonesian Transport Ministry said it was not known what caused the plane to disappear during its estimated 45-minute flight, Sumaryanto says weather conditions in the area most likely played a role.

A file picture dated 02 September 2013 shows a Trigana Air plane at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta global Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Trigana flight IL267 failed to arrive in Oksibil from Sentani as scheduled after contact was lost 33 minutes after take-off.

The missing Trigana aircraft has been found by villagers at Camp 3, Ok Bape district in the Bintang Mountains, with rescue crews heading to the crash scene to confirm.

The ATR 42-300 turboprop plane had departed from Jayapura on Sunday afternoon, Agence France-Presse reported.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, the airline has written off 10 aircraft, excluding this latest incident, since starting operations in 1991.

The airline is on a blacklist of carriers banned from European Union airspace.

The country Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record in the past.

Small aircraft are routinely used to get around remote Papua, where rugged terrain and dense forests often make land travel impossible.

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