Indonesian rescuers find wreckage of plane that had 11 people on board

11 people were on board a plane that was missing when Indonesian rescuers approached a mountainous area of Sulawesi island in cloudy weather, and the plane is believed to have crashed.

The small plane, which was traveling from Yogyakarta on Indonesia’s main island of Java to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, vanished from radar on Saturday.

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According to Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of Makassar’s search and rescue office, 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.

Anwar said a press conference was held to discuss the larger debris that was recovered from a steep northern slope following the main fuselage and tail’s dispersal.

The discovery of the aircraft’s main sections significantly narrows the search area, according to Anwar, and provides a potent indicator of tightening the search area. Our joint search and rescue teams are now focusing on finding the victims, especially those who might still be alive.

Indonesia Air Transport flew the aircraft, a turboprop ATR 42-500, and it was last tracked in the mountainous district of Maros, South Sulawesi province’s Leang-Leang region.

As part of an airborne maritime surveillance mission, the vessel had eight crew members and three passengers from the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

Major-General Bangun Nawoko, South Sulawesi’s Hasanuddin military commander, said that despite strong winds, heavy fog, and steep, rugged terrain that had slowed the search, ground and air rescue teams continued to move toward the wreckage site on Sunday.

National Search and Rescue Agency photos and videos showed rescuers attempting to locate scattered wreckage along a steep, narrow mountain ridgeline covered in thick fog.

To connect its more than 17, 000 islands, Indonesia heavily relies on air travel and ferries. In recent years, the Southeast Asian nation has experienced a number of transport accidents, ranging from ferry sinkings to plane and bus crashes.