Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers on Sunday recovered remains of a missing plane that is believed to have crashed the previous day with 11 people on board while approaching a mountainous region on the island of Sulawesi on a cloudy day.
The ATR 42-500 turboprop was headed from Yogyakarta, on Indonesia’s main island of Java, toward Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi province, when it disappeared from radar Saturday shortly after receiving instructions from air traffic control to correct its approach alignment.
The plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was last detected at 1:17 p.m. in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous district in South Sulawesi province. It had on board eight crew members and three passengers from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries who were participating in an aerial maritime surveillance mission.
A rescue team in 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, said Muhammad Arif Anwar, who heads the Makassar Search and Rescue Office. It was followed by rescuers on the ground who recovered larger debris consistent with the main fuselage and tail scattered on a steep northern slope, Anwar said at 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 explained. “Our joint search and rescue teams are now focusing on searching for victims, especially those who may still be alive.”
Ground and air rescue teams continued to advance toward the crash site on Sunday, despite strong winds, dense fog and steep, rugged terrain that have slowed the search, said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, Hasanuddin’s military commander in South Sulawesi.
Photos and videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency on Sunday showed rescuers walking along a narrow, steep mountain ridge covered in thick fog to reach the scattered remains.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its more than 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asian country has suffered several transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and bus crashes to ferry shipwrecks.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
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