An Indonesian plane carrying 54 people is missing in country's remote Papua region, the Transportation Ministry has confirmed.
The ministry said Sunday that a Trigana Airliner carrying 54 passengers and crew on board had lost contact with air traffic control, reported Jakarta Post.
"The Trigana Air PK-YRN aircraft, flight number IL 267, has not landed in Oksibil. Contact with it has been lost, according to the ATC Tower in Oksibil," said Julius Andravida Barata, the ministry's head of public communications, according to Jakarta Post.
The twin turbo-prop aircraft took off from Jayapura at 2:22 p.m. local time to the remote mountainous settlement of Oskibil. It was scheduled to arrive in Oksibil at 3:15 p.m. local time (06:00 GMT).
"Oksibil is a mountainous area where weather is very unpredictable. It can suddenly turn foggy, dark and windy without warning," said Beni Sumaryanto, Trigana Air's director of operations, ABC News reported.
"We strongly suspect it's a weather issue. It is not overcapacity, as the plane could take 50 passengers," he said.
Indonesian authorities are carrying out a search and rescue operation to locate the missing plane.
The National Search and Rescue Agency said a plane was dispatched to look for the missing aircraft, but the operation was later suspended due to darkness and bad weather, according to the Associated Press. The agency, however, said that the search operation would resume on Monday morning.
Indonesia has witnessed some of the worst air crashes in recent history. More than 140 people were killed in July when a military transport plane crashed in a residential area in Sumatra, reported BBC News. An Air Asia plane crashed in Java sea last December, killing all 192 people on board.
