Wreckage reportedly spotted in search for Indonesian airliner — ABC News

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

Four postal workers aboard the plane were escorting four bags of cash totaling $468,750 in government fuel aid, Franciscus Haryono, the head of the post office in Jayapura, the provincial capital, told The Associated Press.

“The Trigana twin-turboprop ATR 42-300 took off from Jayapura-Sentani airport at 2.20pm local time on Sunday heading for Oksibil, near the site of the wreckage”.

All those on the plane were Indonesian nationals, a National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) official said.

“Early this morning, a plane swept the route and sighted debris in an area near Oksibil, but we want to double-check now”, transport ministry spokesman J. A. Barata told AFP.

While clear skies were noted when the passenger plane left Jayapura, Oksibil was experiencing bad weather, characterized by heavy rain, fog and strong winds when the plane reached that area. Five children, including three infants, were among the passengers. An air search for the missing plane was suspended and will resume Monday as well.

Papua, which is Indonesia’s most easterly region, is made up of mostly dense jungle and mountains.

The wreckage was spotted by villagers about 12 kilometers from Oksibil.

The pilot of Trigana Air asked permission to land but the plane never reached its destination. Officials suspect that crash was caused by bad weather. Since the airline was founded in 1991, Trigana Air Service has logged 14 serious incidents, and written off ten aircraft as beyond fix.

Sunday’s plane crash is the latest in a string of aviation disasters in south-east Asia.

ATR, based in Toulouse, France, makes regional planes with 90 seats or less. In December past year, An Indonesian Plane carrying 162 people crashed in the Java sea on its way to Singapore.

Trigana Air Service is one of a large number of airlines banned from operating in European airspace “because they are found to be unsafe and/or they are not sufficiently overseen by their authorities”, according to the European Commission. But accidents in recent years have raised urgent questions about the safety of Indonesia’s booming airline sector, with experts saying poor maintenance, rule-bending, and a shortage of trained professionals are partly to blame.