Bodies of Indonesian plane crash being transferred to hospital for identification

Indonesian rescuers on Wednesday began transferring bodies of 54 victims to hospital for further identification days after a regional plane crashed in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.

Four bodies were transported to the joint operation center located in Sentani air base in Jayapura, capital of Papua province, from Oksibil by an ATR-42 Trigana Air plane of the same type with the crashed one.

The bodies kept in the coffins were handed over to the police at a ceremony.

"These four bodies initiated the transfer process from Oksibil to Sentani which would later on be identified by the police," Head of Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Henry Bambang Soelistyo said.

Bambang also conveyed the joint team's deepest condolences to families of the victims for the loss of relatives in the tragedy.

All bodies of 49 passengers and five crews would be transferred to Bhayangkara hospital in Jayapura.

The ATR-42 turboprop plane, operated by Trigana Air, hit Mount Tangok on Sunday during its flight from Jayapura to Oksibil, 280 km south of the provincial capital.

The search team recovered bodies of all 54 people onboard the ill-fated plane, along with blackbox of the aircraft on Tuesday. Endi