By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA (AA): Indonesian authorities say a plane that went missing earlier Sunday with 54 passengers on board has been found after it crashed into mountains in eastern Papua.
The director general of air transportation, Budi Prasetyo, told a news conference at the transport ministry that the Trigana Air Service plane was discovered in Okbape District.
“Information from the public said that the plane had crashed into mountains,” he added.
The director of operations at Trigana, Beni Sumaryanto, told Anadolu Agency that another aircaft sent to search the area where villagers had said they had seen a plane flying low had to turn back because of bad weather.
“Until now, we don’t know the plane’s condition and the [state of] passengers,” he added
The plane had 49 people on board, including five crew.
The country’s search and rescue agency has said the plane lost contact while flying over the remote region at 2:55 p.m. (0755GMT)
It departed Jayapura – the provincial capital of Papua – at 2.22 p.m. but had not arrived at its destination in Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains, at 3:15 p.m. as scheduled
Indonesia’s search and rescue agency announced on its twitter account Sunday that due to limited visibility the search for the plane will continue tomorrow at 6 a.m.