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Crashed Papua plane 'found'

August 16, 2015

A missing Indonesian airliner has been found by residents in Indonesia's province of Papua, an official says. The Trigana Air Service plane had been carrying 54 people on a short flight.

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Indonesien Fluggesellschaft Trigana Air
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Irham

An Indonesian airliner that lost contact with ground control early on Sunday during a short flight in bad weather in the country's easternmost province of Papua has been found, a transport ministry official said on Sunday evening.

"The plane has been found (by villagers). According to residents, the flight had crashed into a mountain," said the ministry's director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, who goes by one name.

Map showing region
Image: DW

He added that the find was still being verified.

There was no immediate word on whether anyone survived the crash.

The ATR 42-300 Trigana Air turboprop was flying from the provincial capital of Jayapura to the city of Oksibil, a scheduled 42-minute trip, when it went missing amid heavy rain, strong wind and fog. It was carrying 49 passengers, including five children, and five crew.

Local media reports said all the passengers were Indonesian.

Bad safety record

Residents of Okbape village in Bintang district earlier told local police they saw a plane crash into a mountain.

The area is mountainous and densely forested, which will make recovery operations difficult.

Following a number of serious safety incidents, the airline running the flight, Trigana Air, has been on the European Union blacklist of carriers banned from entering European airspace since 2007.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, the airline has written off 10 aircraft, excluding this latest incident, since starting operations in 1991.

tj/sgb (Reuters, AFP, dpa)