A body has been found among the wreckage of an Indonesia Air Transport plane that lost contact with air traffic control while flying over mountainous terrain with 11 people on board.
At around 1:17 p.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 17, the Indonesia Air Transport turboplane traveling from Yogyakarta to Makassar went missing after it stopped communicating with air traffic control between the Maros and Pangkep regions of South Sulawesi, according to Basarnas (SAR), Indonesia’s national search-and-rescue agency.
Officials said the aircraft was carrying eight crew members and three passengers.
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Search teams later located the wreckage on Mount Bulusaraung. The body of one person who was onboard has since been found on the mountain near the debris, SAR confirmed in an Instagram post on Sunday, Jan. 18.
“One victim of the ATR 42-500 plane was found on the slope of the top of Bulusaraung mountain, the joint SAR is still evacuating,” SAR said in the translated post. The victim has not been publicly identified.
Footage from the crash site shows plane parts scattered across the ground as rescue team members comb the area for additional victims.
Hikers on Mount Bulusaraung in South Sulawesi reported seeing debris on the trail, including what appeared to be an Indonesia Air logo, along with small fires burning nearby, according to the Associated Press. Rescue teams then launched a search mission in the area.
“Our helicopter crews have seen the debris of the plane’s window at 7:46 a.m.,” Mr Sultan, an official at South Sulawesi’s rescue agency, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “And around 7:49 a.m., we discovered large parts of the aircraft, suspected to be the fuselage of the plane.”
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The aircraft was reportedly chartered by Indonesia’s Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to carry out a maritime surveillance operation, per the Metro and ABC.
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee head Soerjanto Tjahjono said that based on early findings, investigators believe the plane struck the slope of the mountain, per ABC.
“We call this controlled flight into terrain. The pilot was able to control the plane and the crash was not intentional,” said Soerjanto.
The cause of the crash has not yet been officially determined.
