Indonesian police plane goes missing during flight to Batam

An Indonesian police plane with 15 people on board has gone missing on a flight to the island of Batam, south of Singapore, according to reports.

The plane, which took off from Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka, is thought to have crashed on Saturday between the islands of Mensanak and Sebangka or Gentar, a police report seen by Reuters said.

A search team recovered items reportedly identified as being from the missing aircraft, including seats, luggage and documents, the report said, noting that there were 15 people on board according to the manifest.

Indonesia’s search-and-rescue agency, Basarnas, said items belonging to passengers had also been found.

“We found debris,” the Basarnas chief, Bambang Soelistyo, said, adding that his team was searching in a 200 sq nautical mile area.

Although there were no reports of survivors, Soelistyo said it was too soon to assume there were none, and that no remains of those on board had been found. Up to four police vessels were searching the area alongside navy vessels.

According to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, the last known radar position of the aircraft was about 40 nautical miles south-east of Tanjung Pinang.

“With clearance from the Indonesian authorities, one SuperPuma helicopter and one Fokker 50 are currently on scene supporting the Indonesians to locate the aircraft,” the statement said. “Two ships are awaiting clearance by the Indonesian authorities to assist in the search and rescue efforts.”

Source: The Guardian