One Body Recovered from Debris of Indonesian Surveillance Plane That Went Missing with 10 On Board

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Maros: Indonesian authorities on Sunday located the wreckage of a fisheries surveillance aircraft that went missing in South Sulawesi province, recovering the body of one of the 10 people on board, officials said.

The ATR 42-500 turboprop, owned by Indonesia Air Transport, lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday at around 1:30 p.m. local time while flying over the Maros region. The aircraft was en route from Yogyakarta to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi.

The plane was carrying seven crew members and three passengers, all staff from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, and had been chartered to conduct aerial surveillance operations. Authorities initially reported eight crew members on board but later revised the figure.

Rescue teams on Sunday morning discovered debris scattered across the slopes of Mount Bulusaraung, a fog-covered mountain in the Maros region. “Our helicopter crews first spotted window debris, followed by larger parts believed to be the fuselage, and later the aircraft’s tail at the bottom of the slope,” said Andi Sultan, an official from South Sulawesi’s search and rescue agency.

Search efforts have been hampered by thick fog and rugged terrain. By Sunday afternoon, rescuers recovered one body from a ravine about 200 metres below the mountain’s peak. The fate of the remaining nine people remains unknown.

South Sulawesi rescue agency head Muhammad Arif Anwar said around 1,200 personnel would be deployed to continue search operations, with priority given to locating the remaining victims.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said preliminary findings indicated the aircraft crashed into the mountain slope in what investigators described as a “controlled flight into terrain.” The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

The ATR 42-500, built by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, is a regional turboprop aircraft designed to carry up to 50 passengers. Flight tracking data showed the plane was flying at low altitude over the sea, limiting tracking coverage before its signal was lost near Makassar.

The incident marks Indonesia’s first fatal crash involving an ATR 42 aircraft in more than a decade.