Indonesian rescuers find body, wreckage after passenger aircraft with 11 people goes missing

Indonesian rescuers on Sunday found a body during an ongoing search for 11 people aboard a regional passenger plane that reportedly crashed the day before. The plane lost contact with ground control on Saturday as it approached a mountainous region between Indonesia’s main island of Java and the island of Sulawesi, officials said.

The rescue team on Sunday afternoon recovered the body of a man from a ravine about 200 meters deep on the slope of Mount Bulusaraung, located near scattered plane debris. The evacuation of the body is underway, said Muhammad Arif Anwar, who heads the Makassar search and rescue office and is the mission coordinator.

Crews also discovered other wreckage, including parts of the plane’s chassis and passenger seats, and visually identified what appears to be the engine, Anwar said.

The body has not yet been identified, but it is believed to be from the turboprop ATR 42-500 that was en route from Yogyakarta, on Indonesia’s main island of Java, to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, when it disappeared from radar on Saturday shortly after being ordered by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment.

The plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was en route from Yogyakarta to the South Sulawesi capital when it disappeared from radar, said Transport Ministry spokesperson Endah Purnama Sari. The plane was last spotted at 1:17 p.m. local time in the Leang-Leang area of ​​Maros, a mountainous district in South Sulawesi province.

Sari said the plane disappeared shortly after receiving an order from air traffic control to correct its approach alignment: “After the final instructions from ATC, radio contact was lost and controllers declared the emergency distress phase.”

She said rescue teams focused their search around the mountains where the plane, with eight crew members and three passengers from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on board, was believed to have veered off course on its approach to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport. Weather conditions at that time indicated clouds and visibility of almost 8 km, Sari said.

A rescue team aboard an air force helicopter spotted what appeared to be a small plane window in a forested area on the slope of Mount Bulusaraung on Sunday morning, Anwar said. Ground rescuers then recovered larger debris, corresponding to the main fuselage and tail, scattered on a steep northern slope, Anwar told a news conference.

“The discovery of the main sections of the plane significantly narrows the search area and provides a crucial clue to narrow the search area,” Anwar said. “Our joint search and rescue teams are now focused on searching for victims, particularly those who may still be alive.”

Several search and rescue teams, supported by helicopters, drones and air force ground units, were deployed after the plane’s disappearance. Hopes of locating the wreckage grew after hikers on Mount Bulusaraung reported finding scattered debris, a logo matching Indonesian air transport markings and small fires still burning at the scene.

“These sightings have been reported to authorities and are being verified by rescue teams trying to reach the area,” said South Sulawesi military commander Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawako Hasanuddin.

Ground and air rescue teams continued to head toward the wreck site Sunday, despite strong winds, thick fog and steep, rugged terrain that slowed the search, Nawoko said. The teams, which include more than 100 people, supported by the specialized search and rescue units of the army’s elite forces, faced heavy rain and thick fog with visibility of only about five meters at the summit, according to the military commander.

“This affected movements and even forced the cancellation of a planned vertical descent for safety reasons,” Nawoko said.

Photos and videos released Sunday by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed rescuers walking along a steep, narrow mountain ridge covered in thick fog to reach scattered wreckage.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its more than 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asian country has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, ranging from plane and bus crashes to ferry shipwrecks.