JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aircraft carrying 11 people lost contact with ground control Saturday while approaching a mountainous region between Indonesia’s main island of Java and Sulawesi island, officials said. A search and rescue operation has been launched.
The turboprop ATR 42-500 operated by the Indonesia Air Transport was on its way from Yogyakarta to the capital city of South Sulawesi when it vanished from radar, said Endah Purnama Sari, a spokesperson for the Transportation Ministry. The plane was last tracked at 01:17 p.m. (0517 GMT) in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous district of South Sulawesi province.
Multiple search and rescue teams, supported by air force helicopters, drones and ground units have been deployed, Sari said in a statement.
Hopes for locating the wreckage grew after hikers on Mount Bulusaraung reported finding scattered debris, a logo consistent with Indonesia Air Transport markings, and small fires still burning at the scene.
“The sightings were reported to authorities and are being verified by rescue teams attempting to reach the area,” said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the South Sulawesi’s Hasanuddin military commander.
Sari said the plane disappeared shortly after being instructed by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment. “After the last ATC instructions, radio contact was lost and controllers declared the emergency distress phase.”
She said rescue teams focused their search on the mountains where the aircraft, with eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry aboard, was believed to have deviated from its approach to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport.
Weather conditions at the time indicated clouds and 8-kilometer (nearly 5-mile) visibility, Sari said.
Steep terrain at Bulusaraung National Park linking Maros and Pangkep districts complicated the search efforts, Nawoko said.
Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono told a news conference late Saturday that three employees of his ministry were aboard the flight as part of an airborne maritime surveillance mission supporting Indonesia’s fisheries management operations.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation with more than 280 million people, relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its over 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asia country has been plagued by transportation accidents on land, sea and air in recent years because of poorly enforced safety standards.