JAYAPURA, Indonesia, Aug. 16 (Andrew V. Pestano) — A Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 double-propeller airplane carrying 54 people crashed on Sunday in the Indonesian side of the island of Papua.
The plane was traveling domestically between the Jayapura-Sentani Airport and Oksibil Airport in Papua, bordering Papua New Guinea. The crashed craft was found in the Oktabe district.
Contact with the airplane was lost at 2:55 p.m. local time after taking off from 34 minutes prior from Jayapura, the regional capital.
Aboard the aircraft were 44 adults, five children and five crew members. The plane took its first flight 27 years ago. There are no confirmed reports on the amount of injuries of deaths resulting from the crash.
Previously, search and rescue operations were suspended at nighttime.
“Because it was night and visibility is limited we suspend search Trigana Air and we continue the search tomorrow morning,” Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.
Trigana Air Service has had 14 serious incidents, where 10 planes have been lost, since operations began in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The carrier was added to a list of airlines banned in the European Union in 2007.
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