Indonesian authorities have launched a search today for a small plane with 11 people on board that they lost contact with while flying over the eastern part of the country.
The plane, owned by the airline Indonesia Air Transport, was bound for Makassar, in South Sulawesi, after taking off from Yogyakarta on the island of Java, with three passengers and a crew of eight.
Contact was lost shortly after 13:00 local time (07:00 Albanian time).
The head of the local search and rescue service, Muhammad Arif Anuar, said teams have been deployed to a mountainous area in the Maros region, about 42 kilometers from the provincial capital Makassar, where the plane's last trace was recorded.
The air force, police and volunteers are participating in the ground and air searches, according to reports.
Anty Sultan, the operations director of the Makassar search and rescue service, explained that a helicopter and a drone have been sent to the area to locate the plane.
