Airplane Crashes on Mountain in Indonesian Jungle; 18 Onboard

Indonesia sent rescuers into the jungle of North Sumatra province after an airplane with 18 people onboard crashed on a mountainside.

The fate of the passengers and crew, who are all Indonesian, won’t be known until the emergency personnel reach the crash site, Herry Bakti Gumay, the transport ministry’s aviation head, told reporters in Jakarta today. The Casa 212-200 plane, made by PT Dirgantara Indonesia in 1989, is intact, he said.

The 18-seater plane, operated by PT Nusantara Buana Air, was headed to Kutacane in Aceh province from Medan, North Sumatra, when it crashed on Mount Bohorok. The aircraft was due to land at about 8 a.m. after a 37-minute flight. The rescuers include workers from the planemaker and the national transport safety committee, Gumay said.

Indonesia has already suffered three fatal plane crashes this year, based on Flight Safety Foundation data, as the nation struggles to keep pace with rising traffic. The country’s air- safety operations fail to meet global standards, according to the U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration.

“We are evaluating and drawing up regulations for operators in order to improve awareness of air safety in mountainous areas,” Gumay said. The ministry will soon release a special training manual, he said.

Another Casa aircraft crashed on Indonesia’s Bintan Island in February, killing all five onboard, according to the Flight Safety website. In May, a Xian MA 60 carrying 25 passengers and crew crashed in West Papua province, killing all aboard. Two people also died in a Cessna crash earlier this month.