As the wreckage of the missing Indonesian plane that disappeared with 54 passengers on board has been found in a rugged area of the Papua region, reports have emerged that Flight TGN267 had been carrying 6.5 billion rupiah (£300,000) to be handed out to poor villagers living in remote areas of the region.
A search plane spotted the wreckage with smoke still billowing from the crashed plane, rescue officials said on Monday, about seven miles from its destination of Oksibil. No information has been given about whether there were any survivors from the crash.
The head of Jayapura’s post office, Haryono, who like many Indonesians goes by only his first name, told the BBC that the plane had been carrying four bags of cash.
National Search And Rescue Agency chief F. Henry Bambang Soelistyo looks at a map during a search operation for the missing Trigana Air Service flight
“Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there,” he said.
The Trigana Air flight lost contact with its destination airport of Oksibil nine minutes before it was due to land on Sunday. It had flown from the provincial Papua capital of Jayapura and the journey was scheduled to take 42 minutes.
The plane is believed to have crashed during bad weather over Indonesia’s mountainous eastern province. Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue agency, said rescuers were preparing an attempt to reach the area by air and by foot.
Map showing the route of the flight from Jayapura to Oksibil in Indonesia's Papua region
The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers, including three children and two infants, and five crew members.
“Smoke was still billowing from the wreckage when it was spotted by a plane search,” said Soelistyo, who is leading the rescue operation from Sentani Airport in Jayapura, adding that bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the wreckage located in a mountainous area at an altitude of 2,600 meters.
He said elite forces from the air force and army will build a helipad for evacuation purposes near the crash site.
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Indonesian flight TGN267 wreckage found in Papua
Budiono, the airline’s crisis centre official in Jayaprura’s Sentani airport, said that among the passengers were five local government officials and members of the local parliament who were due to attend a ceremony in Oksibil on Monday marketing the 70th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence from Dutch colonial rule.
Additional reporting by AP
