Rescuers find a second victim from the crashed Indonesian turboprop, with eight still missing as bad weather hampers recovery efforts on Mount Bulusaraung
MAKASSAR: Indonesian rescuers recovered a second body on Monday from a chartered plane that crashed into a mountain with 10 people on board.
The Indonesian Air Transport turboprop, carrying three civil servants and seven crew, lost contact with Saturday and crashed into Mount Bulusaraung in the country’s east.
National search and rescue agency head Mohammad Syafii confirmed the discovery. “One more victim has been found… according to the information we received, the victim was a woman,” he told reporters.
A man’s body was found on Sunday, leaving eight people still missing.
Poor weather conditions and low visibility have prevented teams from evacuating the bodies, the rescue official said.
The plane had been chartered by the fisheries ministry to monitor resources, flying from Yogyakarta to Makassar on Sulawesi island.
Local officials have located debris including the fuselage, tail section and windows.
The aircraft’s black box, which records cockpit audio and flight data, has not yet been reported found.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its vast archipelago of 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 crashed in September shortly after takeoff from South Kalimantan province, killing all on board.
Four more people were killed less than two weeks later when another helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.
