Chartered plane crashes in Kalimantan mountain

Chartered plane crashes in Kalimantan mountain

JAKARTA (JP): Search and Rescue (SAR) workers struggled
yesterday to locate 10 people whose small chartered airplane
crashed into a mountain in West Kalimantan in adverse weather on
Monday.

The authorities have spotted the two-engine Britten Norman
plane on Mt. Saran about 500 kilometers east of Pontianak, West
Kalimantan's capital.

The 10 people aboard the aircraft, including its pilot and an
infant, have not yet been found and it is not known whether any
survived the crash, said Marsudi, a staff member of the SAR team
in West Kalimantan.

The aircraft, owned by PT Dirgantara Air Service, was flying
from Pontianak to Nanga Pinoh, a district town to the east. It
crashed about 30 miles before reaching its destination, said
Bambang S.A., the airline's operations systems manager.

Bambang attributed the crash to bad weather. He said the
British-Canadian produced BN-2A aircraft was in good condition.

Marsudi told The Jakarta Post that adverse conditions made it
difficult for the SAR team to reach the crash site yesterday.

The team, using a Puma helicopter and a small CN 235 aircraft,
managed to get close to the crash site but was unable to reach
the plane because of the rough terrain and unfavorable weather
conditions.

Salam Susanto, spokesman of the Ministry of Transportation,
told the Antara news agency that the wreckage was first spotted
by the Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Marsudi said the passenger plane lost contact with the control
tower approximately 90 minutes after it departed from Pontianak.
An alarm was sounded when the plane was reported 18 minutes
behind schedule in Nanga Pinoh. (prs)