The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been found in the remote western Papua region, officials say.
The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil.
Indonesia’s transport minister said the aircraft had been found by local people in the Bintang highlands region.
On Monday, a search team also spotted suspected wreckage from the air.
Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near the Oksop waterfall, and that ground search teams were preparing to head to the area.
Bad weather
The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. It is not yet known if anyone survived.
It took off from Sentani airport in Jayapura at 14:21, but lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour later.
Indonesia’s director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo, said on Sunday that villagers had told officials the plane had crashed into Tangok mountain.
Oksibil, which is about 280km (175 miles) south of Jayapura, is a remote, mountainous region, which is extremely difficult to navigate.
Bad weather is believed to have been a possible reason for the crash.
The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions.
Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
It has been on a European Union blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. All but four of Indonesia’s certified airlines are on the list.
Indonesia has suffered two major air disasters in the past year.
Last December an AirAsia plane crashed in the Java Sea, killing all 192 people on board – and in July a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan, Sumatra claiming 140 lives.
