Indonesian authorities on Sunday said they had located the wreckage of a fisheries surveillance aircraft that went missing in South Sulawesi province, but rescue teams were still searching for the 11 people on board.
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The ATR 42-500 turboprop aircraft, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, lost contact with air traffic control at around 1:30pm local time on Saturday while flying over the Maros region of South Sulawesi. The plane had departed from Yogyakarta and was en route to Makassar, the provincial capital.
There were eight crew members and three passengers on board. The aircraft had been chartered by Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to conduct aerial surveillance operations, and the passengers were ministry officials.
South Sulawesi rescue agency chief Muhammad Arif Anwar said the wreckage was discovered near Mount Bulusaraung, a fog-covered mountainous area in the Maros region. Following the discovery, authorities plan to deploy around 1,200 personnel to intensify the search and rescue operation.
“Our priority is to search for the victims, and we hope there are some we can evacuate safely,” Anwar said in a televised statement.
Rescue officials said debris from the aircraft was found scattered across multiple locations on the mountain. Andi Sultan, an official with the provincial rescue agency, said helicopter crews first spotted a window from the aircraft at 7:46am, followed minutes later by larger sections believed to be the fuselage. The tail section was also seen at the base of the mountain slope.
Search efforts have been hampered by thick fog, strong winds and difficult terrain, Sultan said, adding that ground teams and air units had been dispatched to the crash site.
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash, which remains unknown. Aviation experts note that aircraft accidents are often the result of multiple contributing factors.
The ATR 42-500 is a regional turboprop aircraft manufactured by Franco-Italian plane maker ATR and typically carries between 42 and 50 passengers.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft had been flying at a low altitude over the ocean, limiting tracking coverage. The last signal was recorded at 4:20am GMT, about 20 kilometres northeast of Makassar airport.
