Rescuers find second body from plane crash in Indonesia

Rescuers find second body from plane crash in Indonesia

The body of a woman was found today, leaving eight people still missing.

A rescuer inspects the wreckage of an Indonesian Air Transport turboprop that crashed en route from Yogyakarta to Makassar at Mount Bulusaraung in South Sulawesi. (AFP pic)
MAKASSAR:
Rescuers in Indonesia recovered on Monday a second body from a chartered plane that had crashed into a mountain with 10 people on board, an official said.

The Indonesian Air Transport turboprop plane, carrying three civil servants and seven crew, lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday and crashed into Mount Bulusaraung in the country’s east.

On Monday, Mohammad Syafii, head of the national search and rescue agency, told reporters that “one more victim has been found… according to the information we received, the victim was a woman.”

The body of a man was found on Sunday, which leaves eight people still missing.

Teams have not been able to evacuate the bodies due to poor weather conditions and visibility, the rescue official said.

The plane, flying from Yogyakarta to Makassar on Sulawesi island, had been chartered by the fisheries ministry to monitor the area’s resources, according to the minister.

Debris from the aircraft has been located, including the fuselage, tail section and windows, according to local officials.

But the plane’s black box, which records cockpit audio and flight data, has not been reported found.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.

The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal crashes in recent years.

A helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed in September shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province, killing everybody on board.

Four people were killed less than two weeks after the September crash when their helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.

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