2nd LD: Wreckage of missing plane spotted in eastern Indonesia
Xinhua, August 17, 2015 Adjust font size:
A search team has spotted the wreckage of a missing passenger plane with 54 people aboard near the city of Oksibil in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, a spokesman of the Indonesian Transport Ministry said on Monday.
Soldiers, police and rescuers were heading to the crash site of the Trigana Air plane, which went missing 33 minutes after it took off from Papua's capital of Jayapura on Sunday, said spokesman J.A. Barata.
"This morning, there is a team searching the area, from Trigana Air. (It says the wreckage) is found near Oksibil. But we need to check the accuracy of the report," he told Xinhua by phone.
The ATR-42 turboprop plane, which was carrying 54 people including three babies and two children, was expected to land in Oksibil, 280 km south of Jayapura, according to Barata.
The Trigana Air has lost 10 aircraft in 14 incidents since it began operations in 1991.
The airline has been on an EU blacklist since 2007, which bans it from flying in the European airspace due to safety concerns.
On Aug. 12, a small passenger plane crashed when it was trying to land in Ninia airport of Papua, killing one person and badly wounding the pilot and four others.
Small planes have been operated in remote provinces of Indonesia, an archipelago nation of some 17,000 islands. Endi