A search plane has spotted wreckage in the hunt for an Indonesian passenger plane that went missing with 54 people onboard, according to rescue officials.
The Trigana Airlines plane, carrying 49 passengers, including five children, and five crew, was travelling from Jayapura, the provincial capital, to Oksibil, near the border with Papua New Guinea.
The plane went missing after flying through heavy weather in the remote eastern province of Papua but residents and officials said the plane crashed in Okbape district in Papua.
It was revealed that the plane was carrying 6.5 billion rupiah (£300,000) in cash to distribute to poor families in the eastern province, a post office official said on Monday.
Last December, an AirAsia passenger jet crashed en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.
The crash prompted the government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.
Indonesia’s president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet in July after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing 130 people, including 110 passengers and 13 crew members.
