An Indonesian turboprop carrying 54 people lost contact with ground control today over the mountainous and densely wooded Papua province.
"We can't confirm it has crashed. We can say contact has been lost with the plane," the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) chief Bambang Soelystyo told Reuters by phone.
There was no distress call from the Trigana Air Service ATR42-300, and authorities suspended a search that was to resume Monday morning.
The plane was en route from Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, to the city of Oksibil in the central part of the island that also includes the independent state of Papua New Guinea.
Michael Sullivan, reporting for NPR from Thailand, says: "The plane went missing as it was on its approach to land amid heavy rain, strong winds and heavy fog, according to Indonesian officials. Papua is among the most remote provinces in Indonesia — which has a checkered air safety record in recent years."
An AirAsia flight crashed in December after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, killing all 162 aboard.
The Associated Press, quoting Susanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, as saying a plane was sent to look for the missing airliner, but that darkness and bad weather had caused the search to be pit on hold until morning.
Reuters notes:
"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. ... "[The airline] has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network's online database. Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft."
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