Indonesian rescuers on Sunday discovered the wreckage of a missing plane believed to have crashed the previous day with 11 people on board. The aircraft, a turboprop ATR 42-500 operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was approaching a mountainous region on Sulawesi island during cloudy weather when it vanished from radar.
The plane was en route from Yogyakarta on Java to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province. It disappeared from radar on Saturday shortly after air traffic control instructed it to correct its approach alignment. The aircraft was last tracked at 1:17 p.m. in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous district.
On board were eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, who were participating in an airborne maritime surveillance mission. A rescue team on an air force helicopter spotted what appeared to be a small aircraft window in a forested area on the slope of Mount Bulusaraung on Sunday morning.
Muhammad Arif Anwar, head of Makassar's Search and Rescue Office, confirmed that rescuers on the ground later retrieved larger debris, including parts of the main fuselage and tail, scattered on a steep northern slope. “The discovery of the aircraft's main sections significantly narrows the search zone and offers a crucial clue for tightening the search area,” Anwar said. “Our joint search and rescue teams are now focusing on searching for the victims, especially those who might still be alive.”
Ground and air rescue teams continued moving toward the wreckage site on Sunday, despite strong winds, heavy fog and steep rugged terrain that have slowed the search, said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the South Sulawesi’s Hasanuddin military commander. Photos and videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed rescuers trekking along a steep, narrow mountain ridgeline blanketed in thick fog to reach the scattered wreckage.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its over 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asian country has experienced numerous transportation accidents in recent years, including plane and bus crashes and ferry sinkings.
