The Trigana Air Service plane that crashed into a mountainside on Sunday, August 16th has been reached by search and rescue teams.
Reports from the crash site state that the plane has been completely destroyed by the impact and there are no survivors.
Trigana Air Service Flight IL267, a French built ATR 42 turboprop aircraft with 54 passengers (44 adults, 5 children and 5 crew) departed Jayapura at 2.21pm local time for the 50 minute flight and was due to arrive into Oskibi at 3.16 pm but contact was lost just before arrival.
It is understood from local reports the plane was on approach in bad weather to Oksibil which is located in the central mountainous region of the country.
The air crash investigator’s primary goal is to find the black box recorder to determine how this tragic accident occured.
See video on flying in Indonesia Papua’s highlands.
The plane is 28 years old and is registered PK-YRN and was under the command of Captain Hasanuddin.
Since 1991 when it was formed, Trigana Air Service, which is banned from the EU, has been involved in 10 crashes, four of which involved fatalities.
Its worst accident till yesterday was in July 1997 when a twin-engine Fokker F-27 on a domestic flight crashed at Bandung after take-off when one of the engines developed problems. Twenty eight of the 50 aboard were killed.
The airline has been heavily involved in transportation around the oil industry.
It operates flights to 16 destinations in Indonesia usinf a fleet of 10 ATR turbo prop planes and six Boeing 737s.
Indonesia is considered by ICAO (International Cival Aviation Orgnisation) to have the poorest oversigth of aviation safety of any of the world’s major countries. Whilst there are other countries with worse safety ratings, the popularity of Indonesia as a tourist and business hub results in very high number of passengers and therefore it is of great concern.
In some cases Indonesia is only 20 per cent compliant with world standards.
