Jakarta – Bambang Sulistyo, the Head of the Indonesia Search and Rescue Agency, said on Thursday that the bodies of all 54 victims of a weekend plane crash in Indonesia’s Papua province have been retrieved.
The remains were taken to the provincial capital Jayapura for identification, Sulistyo said.
The ATR 42-300 plane crashed on Sunday minutes before its scheduled arrival at Oksibil in Pegunungan Bintang district on a 55-minute flight from Jayapura.
Local military commander, Colonel Sugiono said the missing flight data recorder had now been found.
Papua relies heavily on air transport because of limited road networks through its jungle.
The crash was the third major air accident in Indonesia in eight months, and is likely to raise more questions about the country’s aviation safety.
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In December, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo midway from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.
In June, at least 141 people were killed after an Indonesian Air Force C-130 plane crashed into a residential area in Medan, North Sumatra and burst into flames. (dpa/NAN)
