A plane carrying 54 people from Jayapura, Indonesia, to Oksibil, Indonesia, has been found by villagers, who say they saw it crash into a mountain. According to CNN, the Trigana Air Service flight took off at 2:22 local time and was scheduled to land at 3:16. At 2:55, the plane lost contact, Transportation Ministry spokesman JA Barata told reporters.
While the weather was clear when the plane took off, it was reportedly stormy in the mountainous area in the province of Papua, near the border of Papua New Guinea. The plane never made a distress call, which may indicate that the pilots were unaware that they were in danger, or were too busy trying to save the plane. There were 44 adults, five children and five crewmembers aboard.
The search for the plane was called off for the night, due to bad weather and lack of light, so the findings of the villagers are not yet confirmed.
"The plane has been found [by villagers]. According to residents, the flight had crashed into a mountain. Verification is still in process," Suprasetyo, the director-general of air transportation said in a press conference, per Al Jazeera.
Trigana Air's poor safety record and lack of oversight led the airline to be banned from European airspace since 2007, CNN reports.
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