Contact lost with Indonesian plane carrying 54 people

An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people was missing Sunday after it lost contact with ground control during a short flight in the country’s easternmost province of Papua, an official said.

The agency’s chief, Bambang Soelystyo, confirmed that contact with the plane had been lost on Sunday.

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Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at 2:55pm local time (3:55pm AEST), BASARNAS said.

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

According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 had its first flight 27 years ago. Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft.

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.