Indonesian rescuers are searching for an ATR 42-500 fisheries surveillance aircraft that went missing on Saturday with 11 people on board, officials said.
The Indonesia Air Transport plane lost contact with air traffic control around 1:30 p.m. local time (0530 GMT) near the Maros region in South Sulawesi province, Andi Sultan, an official at the local rescue agency, told Reuters.
The aircraft had departed from Yogyakarta province and was heading to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, when contact was lost, Sultan added.
There were eight crew members and three passengers on board. Around 400 personnel, including military and police units, have been deployed to search for the plane and those onboard, though poor weather is hampering the operation. Sultan declined to comment on the possible cause of the incident.
“We suspect the plane came down near the peak of Mount Bulusaraung. We have deployed our personnel there,” he said.
The plane had been chartered by Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, ministry official Pung Nugroho Saksono told state news agency Antara. Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said the three passengers were ministry staff conducting air surveillance on fisheries.
The ATR 42‑500 is a regional turboprop aircraft capable of carrying 42 to 50 passengers. According to unconfirmed Flightradar24 data, an aircraft matching the description was flying eastward over the Java Sea at about 11,000 feet before rapidly losing altitude and disappearing from tracking systems.
In France, Franco-Italian planemaker ATR said it had been informed of the accident and that its specialists were supporting local authorities as the investigation begins.
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