An Indonesian air force transport plane has crashed into a mountain, killing all 13 people board, during a training exercise in the remote region of Papua, a search and rescue agency official said on Sunday.
The Hercules C130 plane had taken off from the city of Timika before crashing near its destination of Wamena at around 6.15 a.m. local time (2315 GMT), said Ivan Ahmad Riski Titus, operational director of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency. The crash site on Lisuwa mountain had been found and the bodies of the victims were being brought back to Wamena, he said.
Air transport is commonly used in remote and mountainous Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expressed deep condolences over the crash of an Air Force plane in Wamena, Papua, on Sunday.
President Jokowi hoped that the same incident would not happen again.
"We are once again grieved over the crash of an Air Force aircraft in Wamena. The causes of the problem should be found such a problem could be overcome to prevent the occurrence similar incident again," he said.
It was reported earlier that Indonesian aircraft Hercules A-1334 Navex 32 crashed in Jayawijaya, Papua, Sunday morning.
The spokesman of the Regional XVII/Cenderawasih Military Command, Colonel Teguh PR confirmed the incident saying "at around 8am East Indonesia Time we received information from the Air Force base in Wamena that at around 06.09 it lost contact with Hercules A-1334 Navex 32 belonging to the Air Force while on a flight from Timika to Wamena with Major Marlon as its pilot."
The plane carrying 12 people on board is believed to have list contact while at around Mount Lisuwa in the Maima village, Minimo, Jayawijaya.
"According to the information there were 12 people on board," he said.
However, the Abdu Saleh official said there were 13 dead victims in the incident, consisting of 12 crew members and one passenger.
Antara learned the plane that carried food and other material supplies left Timika at 05.35am on Sunday and was expected to arrive in Wamena at 06.13am.
The plane last contacted Wamena airport at 06.02am and at 06.08 am it could be seen from the airports tower about to land before vanishing a minute later.
At 08.40 am or two hours later the location of the crashed had been found by 30 personnel of the 1702/Jayawijaya military region led by Captain Irvan in Mount Lisuwa, Jayawijaya.
Search and rescue team including personnel from the military and the police are still trying to evacuate the crew of the aircraft.
Indonesia has a patchy air safety record and President Joko Widodo promised a review of the country's ageing air force fleet last year after a military transport plane crashed, killing more than 100 people.
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