Plane goes missing mid-flight in Indonesia
Search mission launched in mountains near last known location of aircraft, which had 11 people on board
A small passenger plane with 11 people on board has gone missing in mid-flight in Indonesia.
The Indonesia Air Transport turboprop left from Yogyakarta, on the island of Java on Saturday, heading to the city of Makassar, on Sulawesi island, when contact with air traffic control was lost.
Three government workers and eight crew members were on board, according to the Makassar search and rescue agency.
The officials, working for Indonesia’s ministry of marine affairs and fisheries, were carrying out an aerial monitoring mission of resources in the region.
Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of the local search and rescue agency, said teams had been deployed to a mountainous area of Maros Regency, which borders Makassar, near the last known location of the plane.
The air force, police and volunteers have launched a search mission from the air and on land, he added.
Andi Sultan, the operations chief at the Makassar search and rescue agency, said a helicopter and drones were being used to find the plane.
Manufacturer informed of ‘accident’
ATR, the French-based manufacturer of the aircraft, said it had been informed of “an accident” involving one of its 42-500 planes.
“ATR specialists are fully engaged to support the investigation led by the Indonesian authorities and the operator,” the company said in a statement.
Indonesia, an archipelago in south-east Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands. The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal crashes in recent years.
In September last year, a helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province, killing everybody on board.
Less than two weeks later, four people were killed when another helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
