Indonesian plane with 11 passengers onboard go missing, planemaker assisting probe

An Indonesian agency said earlier a search ‌was ‌underway for a plane owned by ⁠Indonesia Air Transport, which had lost contact with ⁠controllers in ⁠the region of ‌Maros, ‌South Sulawesi province.

An Indonesian airline involving ATR 42-500 aircraft lost contact with ground control on Saturday while approaching a mountainous region between Indonesia's main island of Java and Sulawesi island.

​Indonesian rescuers were searching for the aircraft that was carrying 11 passengers on board.

Franco-Italian plane-maker ATR said it ​had been in supporting the operator and investigators.

ATR said its specialists are working ‍with Indonesian authorities as they begin their investigation into the crash.

The ​Indonesia Air Transport plane lost contact with air traffic control ‌at about 1:30 p.m. (0530 GMT) around Maros region ⁠in South Sulawesi ‌province, Andi Sultan, an official at the local rescue agency, told Reuters.

The aircraft had been heading to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, after departing from Yogyakarta province before contact was lost, Sultan said.

There ​were eight crew and three passengers on board, he added.

Around 400 personnel, including military and police units, were deployed to search for the plane and those ‌on board, ‌though the effort was being hampered by bad weather, Sultan said. He declined to comment on ⁠the possible cause of the incident.

"We suspect the plane came down near the peak of Mount Bulusaraung. We have deployed our personnel there," he said.

The ⁠plane had been chartered by Indonesia's ⁠Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, ministry official Pung ‌Nugroho Saksono told state news agency Antara.

Marine Affairs ‌and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said the three passengers were ministry staff conducting air surveillance on fisheries.

The ATR 42-500 is a regional ‍turboprop aircraft capable of carrying between 42 and 50 passengers.

According to unconfirmed Flightradar24 data, an aircraft matching the description was flying eastward over the Java Sea at about 11,000 feet before rapidly losing altitude and dropping off tracking systems.

(With Reuters inputs)