Indonesian rescuers on Sunday recovered a body in an ongoing search for 11 people aboard a regional passenger aircraft that is believed to have crashed the previous day. The plane lost contact with ground control Saturday while approaching a mountainous region between Indonesia’s main island of Java and Sulawesi island, officials said.
The rescue team retrieved the body of a man in a ravine about 200 meters, or 656 feet, deep on the slope of Mount Bulusaraung on Sunday afternoon, located near scattered aircraft debris. The evacuation of the body is underway, said Muhammad Arif Anwar, who heads Makassar’s Search and Rescue Office and is the mission coordinator.
Teams also found additional wreckage, including parts of the aircraft frame and passenger seats, and visually identified what is believed to be the engine, Anwar said.
The body has not yet been identified, but is believed to have come from the turboprop ATR 42-500 that was on its way from Yogyakarta on Indonesia’s main island of Java to Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi province, when it vanished from radar on Saturday shortly after being instructed by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment.
The plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was on the way from Yogyakarta to the capital city of South Sulawesi when it vanished from radar, said Endah Purnama Sari, a spokesperson for the Transportation Ministry. The aircraft was last tracked at 1:17 p.m. local time in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous district of South Sulawesi province.
Sari said the plane disappeared shortly after being instructed by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment: “After the last ATC instructions, radio contact was lost and controllers declared the emergency distress phase.”
She said rescue teams focused their search around the mountains where the aircraft, with eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry aboard, was believed to have deviated from its approach to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport. Weather conditions at the time indicated clouds and nearly 5-mile visibility, Sari said.
A rescue team on an air force helicopter on Sunday morning spotted what appeared to be a small aircraft window in a forested area on the slope of Mount Bulusaraung, said Anwar. Rescuers on the ground later retrieved larger debris consistent with the main fuselage and tail scattered on a steep northern slope, Anwar told a news conference.
“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.”
Multiple search and rescue teams, supported by air force helicopters, drones and ground units, were deployed after the aircraft when missing. Hopes for locating the wreckage grew after hikers on Mount Bulusaraung reported finding scattered debris, a logo consistent with Indonesia Air Transport markings, and small fires still burning at the scene.
“The sightings were reported to authorities and are being verified by rescue teams attempting to reach the area,” said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the South Sulawesi’s Hasanuddin military commander.
Ground and air rescue teams continued moving toward the wreckage site Sunday, despite strong winds, heavy fog and steep rugged terrain that have slowed the search, said Nawoko. The teams, which include more than 100 personnel, supported by the Specialized Search and Rescue Units of the army’s elite forces, have been dealing with heavy rain and thick fog with visibility of only about five meters at the summit, according to the military commander.
“This affected movement and even forced the cancellation of a planned vertical descent for safety,” Nawoko said.
Photos and videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency on Sunday showed rescuers were trekking along a steep, narrow mountain ridgeline blanketed in thick fog to reach scattered wreckage.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport and ferries to connect its over 17,000 islands. The Southeast Asian country has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and bus crashes to ferry sinkings.