An Indonesian domestic flight with 54 people on board lost contact with air traffic control in Papua province Sunday afternoon, the nation’s search and rescue agency said on Twitter.
1.#BreakingNews Jayapura, Pesawat Trigana Air rute sentani-oksibil lost contact pukul 05.55 UTC/14.55 LT (local time) POB 54 orang
— @SAR_NASIONAL (@SAR_NASIONAL) August 16, 2015
Contact was lost with the Trigana Air ATR 42 turboprop just before 15:00 local time (06:00 GMT) after take-off from Sentani airport in the regional capital Jayapura. The plane was flying to the town of Oksibil in the south of the region. A search for the missing plane was suspended at dusk and will continue on Monday morning, rescuers said. It is carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew.
Air transport is commonly used in Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible. It was not immediately clear if search efforts would continue into the night in the densely forested mountainous region where the aircraft was traveling. According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 had its first flight 27 years ago. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus (AIR.PA) and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI) .
Trigana has been on the EU blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. Airlines on the list are barred from operating in European airspace due to either concerns about its safety standards, or concerns about the regulatory environment in its country of registration.
