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The
search at the plane crash site on Mount Sinak in Papua’s
hinterland was temporarily halted on Saturday due to bad weather, head
of the search and rescue team Lt. Col. Easter Hariyanto said.
The search activities, using two planes – belonging to charter
company Trigana Air and the Mission Aviation Fellowship – and a
helicopter owned by Airfast Indonesia, could only be carried out until
2 p.m. Hariyanto said.
Hariyanto, who is also commander of the Timika Air Force base,
explained that the crash site had been discovered, in which the nose of
the ill-fated plane had crashed into the slope of the mountain near
Mount Gergaji and its left wing had become separated from the fuselage.
Quoting the SAR team’s reports, Hariyanto said that the crash
site was located at 03.52 south latitude and 137.45 east longitude.
“We initially planned to evacuate the victims to Ilaga, the
nearest town to the crash location,” he said, referring to the
capital of the newly-established Puncak regency.
The Pilatus Porter plane, which took off from Ilaga airport with 10
passengers including two aircrew, crashed into Mount Sinak on Friday
minutes before landing in Mulia in Puncak Jaya regency amid bad
weather. All 10 passengers were presumed dead.
The 15-member search and rescue team, which consisted of members of the
local police, Air Force, local transportation officials and employees
of the gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, which operates in the
area, could only be deployed to the crash site on Saturday because of
poor visibility due to thick cloud on Friday.
The plane, which belonged to the Mimika regental administration, did
not explode. All the passengers, which included the secretary of the
Puncak Jaya polling body Martin Jitmau and chairman of the local
election supervisory committee Herman Senanfi, were believed to still
be aboard the plane, he said.
The 800-kilogram plane, which has a capacity of up to one ton, was also
carrying ballots and results of the recent legislative election in
Ilaga.
During Saturday’s search the emergency response rescue team from
Freeport Indonesia had made one attempt to get to the crash site by
helicopter, he said.
A team of the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) and the
Minister of Transportation flew to Timika on Sunday to help investigate
the cause of the accident.
“We have flown family members of the victims from Timika to Ilaga
together with the SAR team members to help the evacuation
process,” head of the air transportation section at the local
transportation office John Rettob told reporters on Saturday.
The crash site was located 13,000 feet above sea level, thereby making it difficult to reach, Rettob said.
The plane was bought by the Mimika administration from Switzerland at a
cost of Rp 25 billion (US$2.08 million), taken from the 2008 regental
budget, and had been in operation for only seven months.
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