JAKARTA (Web Desk) – A passenger plane has been reported missing in Indonesia.
According to reports, the Twin Otter aircraft is carrying 10 people, including three children, local media reported on Friday.
Seven passengers and three crew members were flying through the South Sulawesi province when they lost radio contact roughly 30 minutes before it was due to land in the provincial capital of Makassar, The Independent reported.
Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata confirmed a search crew had been dispatched for the passenger plane – owned by airline Aviastar Mandiri.
The airline, based in Jakarta, was established in 2000 and started life as a charter helicopter service before expanding to smaller passenger planes.
In 2009 a Aviastar BAe 146-300 PK-BRD failed a second approach to Wamena Airport and crashed into a mountain.
Indonesia has a notoriously bad air safety record, with 59 of 63 airlines banned from flying in EU airspace. Despite this, passenger numbers have risen by 81 per cent between 2006 and 2013, according to a report from the International Aviation Transport Association.
