Officials Find Crashed Indonesian Plane

A search and rescue plane seeking a crashed aircraft with 54 people on board in Indonesia’s Papua province spotted debris believed to be from the missing flight on Monday, the local police chief said.

Nearly half one million dollars value of authorities money was aboard a passenger aircraft that crashed within the mountains of japanese Indonesia, an area postal official stated Monday.

The ATR 42-300 twin-turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers and five crew on the journey from Papua’s capital Jayapura to Oksibil. The aircraft lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) during its flight in the province of Papua en route from the city of Jayapura to Oksibil. “There is no road, no access at all”, a Papua military spokesman said. The gasoline assist from the Social Affairs Ministry was to be distributed to residents of the area’s distant areas.

According to Heronimus, the search and rescue team was also confident the wreckage was of the Trigana aircraft based on the routing and signaling pathways.

Ludiyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said that rugged, forested terrain and bad weather were hindering the search.

Much of Papua is covered with impenetrable jungles and mountains. Villagers had already reported seeing the plane crash into a mountain on Sunday and spotted wreckage. All those on the plane were believed to be Indonesians.

Widodo said in a statement that he was calling “for a moment of silence and pray for the crew and passengers ahead of our independence anniversary”. ATR, based in Toulouse, France, makes regional planes with 90 seats or less.

Indonesia has had its share of airline woes in recent years.

The European Union even banned Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe for two years due to safety concerns.

Meanwhile, Trigana Air director of operations Beni Sumaryanto said that overcapacity would not be the likely cause for the mishap and further stated that their company suspects that the weather in the Oksibil region could be the probable reason since it is mountainous where air and weather conditions are unpredictable.