Aircraft had been missing for several hours after losing contact during flight between Jayapura and Oksibil

An Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft carrying 54 people has crashed in the Oktabe area of Papua, dealing another blow to the country’s poor air safety record. The plane had been missing for several hours on Sunday after losing contact with air traffic control in the eastern part of Indonesia. It was flying between Jayapura’s Sentani airport and Oksibil, the capital of Papua province.

“The aircraft that lost contact has been found at Camp 3, Ok Bape district in the Bintang Mountains regency,” air transportation director General Suprasetyo said. “Residents provided information that the aircraft crashed into Tangok mountain.”

The transport ministry later said local residents had found the wreckage.

Search and rescue teams, police and the military would head to the site as soon as possible on Monday, a transport ministry spokesman said.

Transport ministry spokesman Julius Barata said the ATR 42-300 twin turboprop lost contact with the airport nine minutes before it was scheduled to land. It was unclear whether anyone on board had survived.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An air stewardess from Indonesian airline Trigana Air says she doesn’t have any confirmed information about the plane that has gone missing in Papua province with 54 people on board.

Indonesia’s search-and-rescue agency said the aircraft was operated by the airline Trigana Air Service and was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and five crew members. When the ATR 42-300 plane lost contact with air traffic control, an aircraft was sent to search for it but returned to Jayapura as darkness fell.

Path of Trigana plane The plane was flying between Jayapura’s Sentani airport and Oksibil, the capital of Papua province.

Authorities worked to verify reports from eyewitnesses, dispatching search parties and troops to look for the wreckage. Aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said: “There are a number of eyewitnesses who have said they saw the plane crash in the valley before the airport.”



Trigana, a local airline founded in 1991, operates in challenging regions of the Indonesian archipelago, often in small and remote areas such as West Papua.

“It’s mountainous, very remote and the airfield runways are sometimes on the side of a hill, so it is not really an area for the faint-hearted to fly,” Soejatman said. “There are bound to be accidents.”

Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network’s online database. Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft. The airline has been on the EU list of banned carriers since 2007. Those on the list cannot operate in European airspace because of concerns about their safety standards or the standard of regulation in their home country. The Trigana fleet comprises 10 ATR planes and four Boeing 737s, and the planes are an average of 26.6 years old.

Indonesia, a country made up of about 17,000 islands with a population of 250 million people, is one of Asia’s fastest-growing aviation markets, but has a poor air safety record. It struggles to provide enough qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure adequate safety levels. In January, an AirAsia Airbus A320 flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore crashed into the Java sea, killing all 162 people on board. The crash prompted the Indonesian government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.

Last month, Indonesia’s president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing more than 100 people.