1 2-year-old Boy survives, eight die in Indonesian plane crash

A 12 -year – old boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed eight people in mountainous eastern Indonesia , authorities said Sunday .
The Swiss – made Pilatus aircraft lost contact with air traffic control Saturday during what was supposed to be a flight of around 40 minutes in remote Papua province .

The wreckage of the plane was found in a heavily forested area on a mountain side in the Oksibil subdistrict on Sunday morning.

“ Eight passengers were found dead and one was found alive, ” Papua military spokesman Lieutenant colonel Dax Sianturi said .

“ At the moment the cause of the crash has not been confirmed , ” he told AFP , adding an investigation would be carried out by the national transportation safety committee.

The plane , which was owned by private charter company Dimonim Air , was carrying seven passengers and two crew .

Before the accident , villagers in nearby Okatem reported hearing a loud roar followed by an explosion.

Search and rescue teams walked two hours to reach the crash site and were still recovering the bodies late morning .

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years .

Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach .
Five people died after a small plane crashed near Wamena in Papua province in July last year .

In August 2015 , a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana crashed in Papua due to bad weather , killing all 54 people on board .

( AFP )

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