Aircraft loses contact in Indonesia's South Sulawesi, search underway

Jakarta, Jan 17 : An ATR 400 aircraft flying from Yogyakarta to Makassar lost contact on Saturday around Maros Regency in South Sulawesi, Indonesian local media reported.

The aircraft, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was scheduled to land at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar. It reportedly lost contact at around 1:17 p.m. local time while flying over the Maros area.

According to local media, Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in Makassar said search teams had been dispatched to the suspected location after receiving coordinate data from Indonesia's air navigation service provider, AirNav Indonesia.

"We are currently heading to the location after being provided with coordinate points from AirNav, around the Leang-Leang area in Maros Regency," said Andi Sultan, head of operations at the Basarnas Makassar office.

He said preliminary information indicated that the aircraft had departed from Yogyakarta and was en route to Makassar when contact was lost, reports Xinhua news agency.

A joint search-and-rescue operation involving three teams and about 25 personnel has been deployed to the area.

In a separate statement, Maros Police Chief Douglas Mahendrajaya was quoted by local media as saying that police were also verifying reports of the aircraft losing contact in the region.

"Yes, the information is correct, but we are still in the process of confirming it," he said.

Earlier in September last year, an aircraft crashed in Central Papua province in Indonesia, killing all four aboard.

The wreckage was located in a canyon in Mimika regency, said I Wayan Suyatna, head of the local search and rescue office. The bodies were evacuated to a hospital in Timika, the regency's capital.

The helicopter went down while flying from Ilaga Airport in Puncak regency to Mozes Kilangin Airport in Mimika, Suyatna said.