Indonesian plane with 54 people onboard crashes in Papua

The plane lost contact at about 2:55 p.m., Transportation Ministry spokesman J.A. Barata told CNN Indonesia. The information provided by the local residents said that the flight crashed into Tangok mountain.

The rescue teams that put their searches on hold will once again resume aerial and ground searches to confirm the reports provided by villagers.

The head of the national search and rescue agency said Monday that debris and smoke from the Trigana Air Service plane had been seen around 7 miles from an airport in Oksibil city, a remote settlement in the mountains.

The plane carrying 54 people went down Sunday on a flight from Jayapura to Oksibil.

Dudi Sudibyo, an aviation analyst, said that Papua is particularly treacherous for air travel because of its mountainous terrain and rapidly changing weather patterns. To get where they want to go, people either have to take a plane or a boat – or walk, which can sometimes take months.

There was no indication that a distress call was made from the plane, according to agency reports, which hinted that the plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and five crew members.

The Trigana Air Service plane lost contact with air traffic control yesterday afternoon while flying south from the provincial capital Jayapura to the town of Oksibil.

The plane is believed to have crashed during bad weather over Indonesia’s mountainous eastern province. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica.

According to Reuters, Trigana Air has been banned to operate in European airspace since 2007. These include 10 ATR aircraft and four Boeing 737 Classics. The average age of its 14 planes is over 26 years.

From 2007 to 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.

This recent crash appeared to be the latest aviation disaster in a country plagued by them, D’Agata says. The airline has yet to release a passenger manifest, but it was thought to be mostly Indonesian natives.

Some planes that have crashed there in the past have never been found.

Officials suspect that the crash was caused by bad weather.

Social-media users in Indonesia and beyond also questioned why the airline was allowed to operate when it had such a poor safety record.

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 130 people, including 110 passengers and 13 crew members.

The search and rescue efforts were in effect for the Indonesia airliner.