Wreckage of an Indonesian plane, which went missing with 54 people on board has been spotted in the remote western Papua region by villagers.
It is not yet known if anyone survived.
TheStreetReporters.com recall that the plane had lost contact at 14:55 local time on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil.
The aircraft wreckage was found by local people in the Bintang highlands region, Indonesia’s transport minister confirmed
Indonesia’s postal office has told the BBC that the plane was carrying four bags containing cash, about 6.5 billion rupiah ($486,000; £300,000), for villagers living in remote places in
Papua.
“Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there,” said the head of Jayapura’s post office, Haryono, who
goes by only his first name.
The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and
infants, and five crew.
Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near a waterfall by a search
plane on Monday, and that ground teams were preparing to head to the area.
Bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the site.
Villagers had earlier told officials that a plane had crashed into a mountain, with bad weather believed to have been a possible reason for the crash.
The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions.
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