The Indonesian Trigana Air Service agency posted an announcement on Twitter informing that the domestic aircraft that took off from Sentani airport in the region’s capital Jayapura was carrying 54 people on board. Besides the five crew members there were 44 adult passengers and five infants and children. Transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata confirmed that the plane which was supposed to arrive at Oksibil airport just after 3:00 pm, had lost contact and further detailed the situation in a statement: “We are not sure what happened to the plane yet and we are coordinating with local authorities”.
A plane was sent looking for the missing airliner. However, the search was later suspended due to reasons also detailed by the Transport ministry spokesman: “The weather is currently very bad there, it’s very dark and cloudy. It’s not conducive for a search. The area is mountainous.” And the bad news doesn’t stop here. Many of the planes that crashed in the same area before have never been found because of the impenetrable jungles and mountains that cover much of Papua.
