Plane goes missing with 54 people on board

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.

Trigana Air, a small domestic airline, has suffered a string of safety incidents and is banned from flying in European Union airspace.

Indonesian search and rescue teams have suspended a hunt for the suspected debris of a passenger plane that went missing with 54 people and nearly half a million dollars on board.

Zainul Thahar, a spokesman for the search and rescue agency, said the agency had “detected a signal” showing the location of the aircraft, the New York Times reported, adding that he did not confirm if the signal came from one of the plane’s black boxes.

Trigana Air Service, which began operations in 1991, had 22 aircraft as of December 2013 and flies to 21 destinations in Indonesia.

Villagers from Oksibil have reported that an aircraft had crashed in the area, and Operation Director Beni Sumaryanto said search teams would check the region Monday morning, according to Reuters.

Air transport is commonly used despite Indonesia’s patchy aviation record… since land travel is often impossible in the island country.

The weather could get worse in the coming days, possibly impeding rescue efforts in an area with mountain peaks as high as 3 kilometers (10,000 feet).

“Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there”, said the head of Jayapura’s post office, Haryono, who goes by only his first name.

Fifty-five people were on board, including five children.

The crash was the third catastrophe for the Southeast Asian nation’s beleaguered air transportation system in less than a year. Indonesian officials confirmed that debris found off the coast of Kalimantan is from AirAsia QZ8501 which was carrying 162 passengers when it disappeared mid-flight.

Before Sunday’s crash, the airline had been involved in 19 serious safety incidents since 1992, according to Flightglobal, a website that tracks the global aviation industry.

A second search plane has been dispatched to verify the debris spotted Monday, Col. I Made Susila Adyana, an Indonesian Air Force official in Papua, told the national news agency Antara.

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.