BreakingMissing Indonesian passenger plane carrying 54 people found crashed in remote eastern Papua mountains

An Indonesian passenger plane that went missing yesterday in bad weather with 54 people on board crashed in Indonesia’s rugged eastern Papua region, officials said.

The plane operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana Air lost contact with air traffic control just before 3:00pm local time after taking off from Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, the search and rescue agency said.

The ATR 42-300 turboprop plane was carrying 44 adults, five children and five crew on the flight which was scheduled to take about 45 minutes.

READ MORE: Indonesia to review ageing air force fleet after Hercules crash killed more than 140 people

“The plane has been found (by villagers). According to residents, the flight had crashed into a mountain. Verification is still in process,” said the Indonesian transport ministry’s director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, who goes by one name.

The search and rescue agency said the flight left Jayapura about half an hour before it disappeared and was headed to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains south of the provincial capital and only accessible by plane. Ten minutes before it was due to land, the plane contacted Oksibil control tower asking to descend, Captain Beni Sumaryanto, Trigana Air’s service director of operations, said.