December 18, 2016•Update: December 18, 2016
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
A military plane crashed in Indonesia’s eastern Papua province Sunday, killing all 13 people on board.
A spokesman of Cendrawasih Regional Military Command said 12 crew members and a passenger were found at the crash site near an airport in the city of Wamena, where the Hercules transport plane had been headed.
"All of the dead victims were found," Col. Teguh Rahardjo was quoted as saying by detik.com.
Marshal Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja, the air force’s deputy chief of staff, told reporters the plane was airworthy but lost contact with a control tower shortly before landing in the morning.
"According to initial investigations, the accident was due to bad weather," he said, adding that an investigative team has been sent to the accident site.
Thick cloud cover had been reported over the area at the time.
The army aircraft had been headed from the city of Timika to Wamena, a flight that had been scheduled to last around 40 minutes.
Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters over the past two years, many of them involving air force aircraft.
Earlier this month, a police plane crashed in the waters of the Riau Islands, killing 13 officers.
In July, three people were killed and three others injured when a military helicopter crashed in the island of Java, damaging two houses near the city of Yogyakarta.
In February, four people died when a military plane crashed into a house in East Java province.
