http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/missing-plane-crashed-mountainside-officials-declare/

Jayapura/Jakarta. Indonesian officials have confirmed that a plane with 54 people on board that went missing in the Papuan highlands on Sunday afternoon crashed into a mountain.

“The Trigana Air plane has been found in Okbape subdistrict,” Prasetyo, the Transportation Ministry’s director general of aviation, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday night.

“We have information from residents that the plane crashed into a mountain in Okbape,” he added.

Prasetyo said an official search team, which has not yet reached the reported crash site, would resume its journey at daybreak on Monday. It is not known if there are any survivors.

The aircraft, an ATR-42 turboprop craft, took off from Sentani Airport in Jayapura, the provincial capital, at 2:21 p.m. local time (12:21 p.m. in Jakarta). It lost contact with air traffic control 34 minutes later.

The plane was supposed to have landed in Oksibil, in Pegunungan Bintang district, at around 3:55 p.m. local time.

Flight IL267  had 49 passengers and five crew members on board.

Mardin Manurung, an official from the Pegunungan Bintang district administration, told the Jakarta Globe that the plane reportedly crashed into a low-lying mountain in Okbape subdistrict, some 20 kilometers from Oksibil.

He described the mountain, Mount Tangok, as “not very tall,” and said that when the plane crashed it was probably only a few minutes away from the Oksibil airport.

He speculated it was possible the pilot had come in too low as he prepared to land and struck the mountain.