News Digest

Aircraft with 54 people on board goes missing in remote area of Indonesia

Search and rescue crews in Indonesia are hunting for an aircraft that disappeared with 54 people on board. The Trigana Air flight had failed to arrive as scheduled after contact was lost with the plane in the remote Papua region, officials tweeted. The turboprop plane was heading from Jayapura’s Sentani Airport due south to the town of Oksibil. The flight list included 44 adults, five children and five crew. Transport ministry spokesman J A Barata said: "We are not sure what happened to the plane yet and we are co-ordinating with local authorities.“

The weather is currently very bad there, it’s very dark and cloudy. It’s not conducive for a search. The area is mountainous.

Transport ministry spokesman J A Barata

An AirAsia passenger jet crashed en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore last December, killing all 162 people on board. The crash prompted the government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety. Indonesia’s president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet in July after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing 130 people, including 110 passengers and 13 crew members. The Trigana Air Service is one of many Indonesian airlines banned from operating in the European Union for safety reasons.