By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesian search and rescue teams have suspended a hunt for the suspected debris of a passenger plane that went missing with 54 people and almost half a million dollars on board.
Indonesian transport ministry official Hadi Mustafa told Anadolu Agency on Monday that thick fog and rain had hampered efforts by both land and air to reach the spot in eastern Papua where the twin-turboprop plane is suspected of going down.
"The search operation via land has been suspended, and via air it was not possible," Djuraid said in a short text message.
The head of the national search and rescue agency said Monday that signs that the Trigana Air Service plane had crashed had been seen around 7 miles from an airport in Oksibil city, a remote settlement in the Bintang Mountains Regency near the border with Papua New Guinea.
"When a twin otter plane owned by Trigana Air searched from the air, it saw the smoke and debris," Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.
He said that search teams - comprised of around 266 people - would continue tomorrow.
Ground rescuers were having to traipse through thick vegetation to reach the spot, which is at an altitude of around 2529 meters (8,300 feet).
The flight - a short-haul ATR 42-300 airliner belonging to Trigana Air Service - had been headed from Jayapura - the provincial capital of Papua – to Oksibil when it lost contact at 2.55 p.m. (0755GMT) Sunday.
It departed at 2.22 p.m. but had not arrived at its destination at 3.15 p.m. as scheduled.
The mountainous area where some peaks rise up to 4,000 meters above sea level is difficult to access, and search efforts were also called off overnight Sunday.
The transportation ministry has not officially confirmed when the final contact with the flight occurred, however Kompas.com reported Monday that the plane had asked for permission to land at a tower at the Oksibil airport before losing contact.
The Indonesian news website has also said that outside of the 54 passengers and crew, the aircraft was also carrying around Rp 6.5 billion ($470,000) to be distributed to the poor in the region.
