An individual’s remains have been discovered during the search for 11 individuals who were aboard a plane that went missing and is suspected to have crashed, with various parts of the aircraft wreckage also being located.
The aircraft disappeared as it was approaching a hilly area on Sulawesi island, Indonesia, amidst cloudy conditions. Search and rescue teams recovered the body of a man in a ravine approximately 200 meters deep on Mount Bulusaraung’s slope on Sunday afternoon, close to scattered plane fragments.
The process of evacuating the body is currently in progress, as confirmed by Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of the Search and Rescue Office in Makassar and the mission coordinator.
Additional wreckage, including sections of the plane’s structure and passenger seats, along with a part believed to be the engine, were also identified visually by the teams, according to Anwar.
Although the identity of the body has not been established yet, it is presumed to be connected to the turboprop ATR 42-500 that was en route from Yogyakarta in Java to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, when it vanished from radar on Saturday after receiving instructions from air traffic control to adjust its approach.
The plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was last traced at 1:17 p.m. in the Leang-Leang area of Maros, a mountainous region in South Sulawesi province. It had eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry onboard for an aerial maritime surveillance task.
On Sunday morning, a rescue team aboard an air force helicopter spotted what seemed to be a small aircraft window in a wooded area on Mount Bulusaraung’s slope, as reported by Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of Makassar’s Search and Rescue Office.
Ground and aerial rescue teams persisted in approaching the wreckage site on Sunday, despite challenges such as strong winds, dense fog, and steep terrain, which have hindered the search efforts, according to Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the Hasanuddin military commander in South Sulawesi.
Over 100 personnel, backed by the Specialized Search and Rescue Units of the army’s elite forces, were deployed across multiple sectors. Adverse weather conditions, including heavy rain and thick fog with limited visibility at the summit, have hampered the search operations, Nawoko mentioned.
These conditions have impacted movement and led to the cancellation of a planned descent for safety reasons, he added.
The National Search and Rescue Agency released photos and videos on Sunday showing rescuers trekking through a steep, narrow mountain ridge shrouded in thick fog to access scattered wreckage.
Indonesia heavily relies on air travel and ferries to connect its vast archipelago of over 17,000 islands. The country in Southeast Asia has experienced numerous transportation incidents in recent years, encompassing plane crashes, bus accidents, and ferry disasters.