Small passenger plane with 10 missing in Indonesia

Seven passengers and three crew members were on-board the light twin engine aircraft when it vanished while flying over the province of South Sulawesi.

A rescue team has been sent to search for the aircraft on the island of Sulawesi.

Barata said a pilot is supposed to contact air traffic control after a plane has reached its cruising altitude and again to seek clearance to make a descent and approach its destination.

“It was around 60 nautical miles from Makassar“, ministry spokesman J.R. Barata told MetroTV, according to Reuters.

Aviastar, which flies domestic routes, said it had lost contact with the aircraft in the mid-afternoon and it had then contacted search authorities.

Deputy chief of operations of the national search and rescue agency, Heronimus Guru, said all passengers and crew were Indonesian, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The plane was headed for Makassar, the provincial capital.

The missing aircraft is a Twin Otter DHC-6.

Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters in recent months, including a crash in Oksibil Papua in August that killed all 54 people onboard.

On December. 28, a flight of AirAsia’s Indonesia subsidiary crashed in the Java Sea with 162 people on board.