Add caption |
A passenger plane carrying 10 people including
three children has gone missing in Indonesia.
The country's Aviastar airline said contact had
been lost with the Twin Otter aircraft travelling between Masamba and Makassar,
in the South Sulawesi province, on Friday afternoon.
The plane lost radio contact around 11 minutes
after taking off in good weather at 14.25pm, Transportation Ministry spokesman
Julius Barata said.
It was carrying three crew and seven passengers,
and no distress signal was received, Mr Barata added.
A map shows the route the aircraft was taking after it set off from Masamba on Friday afternoon
A rescue team has been sent to search for the
plane, which was due to land at 15.39pm.
Ahmad Munir, head of the airport authority in
Makassar, said satellite data showed the aircraft's last known position was
about 20 miles from Masamba.
Indonesia has been plagued by transportation
accidents in recent years, including plane and train crashes and ferry
sinkings.
It is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline
markets, but is struggling to obtain qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic
controllers and updated airport technology.
The crash comes 18 months after Malaysia Airlines
plane MH370 went missing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239
people on board.
A wing from the aircraft was discovered on a remote
Indian Ocean late this summer but the fate of the doomed jet has never been
confirmed.
Malaysia Airlines was hit by another disaster in
July last year when a Boeing-777 carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew was shot
down near the Ukraine-Russia border.
0 Comments