Indonesian search teams on Sunday morning located the wreckage of a small Indonesia Air Transport passenger plane that disappeared from radar on the final leg of its flight to the city of Makassar on Saturday.
Search teams on Sunday discovered multiple pieces of debris believed to be from a small passenger plane that lost contact with air traffic controllers near the Indonesian city of Makassar the day before. TASR informs about this according to the reports of the DPA and AP agencies.
- A small passenger plane with ten people disappeared in Indonesia.
- The wreckage of the plane was found near the city of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi
- Mountainous terrain and dense forests make the search difficult.
- The teams are now concentrating on the search for the victims.
- Indonesia relies heavily on air transport.
There were 10 people on board
The Indonesia Air Transport turboprop plane took off from the city of Jogjakarta on Saturday and was bound for the city of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, the Makassar Search and Rescue Agency said. Ten people – three government employees and seven crew members – were on board, emergency services said.
Contact with the machine was lost after 13:00 local time (07:00 CET) in the final phase of the flight, which triggered an intensive search in the mountainous interior in the south of the mentioned island. Search efforts have been concentrated in the rugged Bantimurung Mountains north of Makassar, where steep slopes, dense forests and poor road access have made ground operations difficult and required the deployment of helicopters and specialized mountaineering equipment.
Search teams are focused on finding victims
A helicopter rescue team spotted what appeared to be the window of a small plane in a forested area on the slopes of Mount Bulusaraung on Sunday morning. Rescuers then rushed to the scene and found larger debris, which matched the plane’s fuselage and tail, strewn across the steep northern slope, the head of Makassar’s search and rescue office told a news conference.
“The discovery of the plane wreckage is an important clue in narrowing down the search area,” he said. He added that the teams are now focusing on securing the site, documenting the finds and adapting tactics to the difficult terrain. “Our joint search and rescue teams are now focused on finding victims, especially those who may still be alive,” he added.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect thousands of islands.
