JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian military Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed Sunday in the easternmost province of Papua, killing all 13 people on board.

Air force chief of staff Agus Supriatna told MetroTV the plane was carrying 12 tons of food supplies and cement from Timika to Wamena, a distance of about 200 kilometers (125 miles), when it crashed just minutes before its scheduled landing.

He said bad weather was suspected to be the cause of the crash. The plane was carrying three pilots and 10 other personnel.

TV footage showed rescuers and locals had reached the wreckage of the plane and were bringing out the victims.

The plane took off from Timika at 5:35 a.m. and crashed about four minutes before it was scheduled to land in Wamena, the capital of the mountainous district of Jayawijaya.

It was the third serious air accident in Indonesia in less than a month. On Nov. 24, a Bell 412 EP helicopter from the Indonesian army crashed in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, killing three. A week later, a police plane with 13 people aboard crashed into the sea on the way to the island of Batam, near Singapore.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of more than 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and train crashes to ferry sinkings.

The military, which suffers from low funding, has also regularly suffered airplane and helicopter crashes.

In July last year, an air force Hercules crashed into a neighborhood of Medan, Indonesia's third largest city, killing more than 140 people including military personnel, family members traveling with them and people on the ground. </s> Thirteen people have died after an Indonesian military transport plane crashed in the east of the country Sunday, officials said, marking yet another air accident for the armed forces.

The Hercules C-130 plane took off from Timika city in Papua province carrying 12 crew and one passenger, but came down in a remote mountainous region shortly before its scheduled landing, officials said.

“The operator on land saw the plane at 06:08 am local time but at 06:09 AM the plane had lost contact,” air force chief Agus Supriatna told AFP.

The plane was expected to land at 06:13 am local time.

Aboard the aircraft were three pilots, eight technicians, a navigator and a military officer, as well as food and cement, Supriatna said.

Weather around the area is known to be unpredictable, and the plane went in and out of clouds before the crash, he added.

Rescuers located the plane debris soon after. All 13 bodies have been recovered according to the air force. Supriatna said a team was heading to the site to investigate.

The fatal incident is the latest for Indonesia’s accident-prone military.

In November an army helicopter accident killed three on Borneo, while another three died when a military chopper went into a home in Central Java in July.

Some 12 people were killed in March when another military helicopter went down in bad weather on Sulawesi in central Indonesia.

But the worst incident in recent times was in June 2015, when an air force Hercules C-130 plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the city of Medan, killing 142 people and causing widespread destruction. </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian military Hercules C-130 transport plane crashed Sunday in bad weather in the easternmost province of Papua, killing all 13 people on board.

The plane was carrying 12 tons of food supplies and cement from Timika to Wamena, a distance of about 200 kilometers (125 miles), when it crashed just minutes before its scheduled landing, said air force chief of staff Agus Supriatna.

The plane was carrying three pilots and 10 other personnel.

Bad weather and low clouds in Wamena, the capital of the mountainous district of Jayawijaya, were believed to be factors in the crash, deputy air force chief of staff Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja told a news conference.

“The tower in Wamena has spotted the plane, but it was not certain that the plane saw the runway,” he said. He did not rule out that the plane hit a mountain.

An investigation is ongoing. He said the aircraft, purchased from Australia where it was first used in the 1980s, had more than 60 hours left until the next routine maintenance.

The plane took off from Timika at 5:35 a.m. and crashed about four minutes before it was scheduled to land in Wamena. TV footage showed rescuers and locals had reached the wreckage of the plane and brought out all the victims.

It was the third serious air accident in Indonesia in less than a month. On Nov. 24, a Bell 412 EP helicopter from the Indonesian army crashed in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, killing three. A week later, a police plane with 13 people aboard crashed into the sea on the way to the island of Batam, near Singapore.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of more than 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and train crashes to ferry sinkings.

The military, which suffers from low funding, has also regularly suffered airplane and helicopter crashes.

In July last year, an air force Hercules crashed into a neighborhood of Medan, Indonesia’s third largest city, killing more than 140 people including military personnel, family members traveling with them and people on the ground. </s> At least 12 people on board an Indonesian military aircraft were killed Sunday morning when the plane crashed into a mountain in the eastern section of the country, the Indonesian military said in a statement.

The Hercules C-130 took off from Timika at 5:35 a.m. local time and was expected to land in Wamena at 6:13 a.m.

Authorities saw the plane was ready to land at 6:08 a.m. but lost contact with it a minute later. By 8:40 a.m., military personnel had found the aircraft in the Lisuwa mountain area of Papua province.

In June 2015, another C-130 military transport plane crashed. The accident took place in Medan, on the island of Sumatra, minutes after takeoff.

Those killed numbered 135 people, 122 military personnel and family members on board and 13 people on the ground. In December 2014, AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, crashing into the Java Sea after stalling following a sudden ascent. All 162 people on board died. </s> The Hercules C130 plane had taken off from the city of Timika before crashing near its destination of Wamena at around 6.15 a.m. local time, said Ivan Ahmad Riski Titus, operational director of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency.

The crash site on Lisuwa mountain had been found and the bodies of the victims were being brought back to Wamena, he said.

Air transport is commonly used in remote and mountainous Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible.

Indonesia has a patchy air safety record and President Joko Widodo promised a review of the country's aging air force fleet last year after a military transport plane crashed, killing more than 100 people. (Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Editing by Ed Davies and Paul Tait) </s> An Indonesian Lion Air Boeing airliner carrying 189 people and flown by Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja crashed into the Java Sea on Monday minutes after taking off from here, with no sign of survivors.

The Boeing 737, JT 610, disappeared from the radar 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bangka.

Here are the top 10 worst air crashes in the history of Indonesia:

Mandala Airlines Flight 660 was a scheduled passenger flight on 24 July 1992 which crashed in Indonesia into a mountain on Ambon Island as it attempted to land at Pattimura Airport in a heavy thunderstorm. Pilot error and wind shear were blamed for the crash. At least 70 people died in the air crash.

On 20 May 2009, an Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100-30(P) Hercules which was carrying 112 people (98 passengers and 14 crew) crashed at about 6:30 local time (23:30 UTC), while flying from Jakarta to eastern Java. The crash resulted in 99 deaths, 2 of which occurred on impact when the aircraft struck at least four houses before skidding into a rice paddy, in the village of Geplak.

Adam Air Flight 574 (KI574 or DHI574) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Adam Air between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Manado that broke up in mid-air and crashed into the Makassar Strait near Polewali in Sulawesi on 1 January 2007. All 102 people on board died, making it the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737-400.

SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled SilkAir passenger flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore, that crashed into the Musi River near Palembang in southern Sumatra, on 19 December 1997, killing all 97 passengers and seven crew on board.

On April 22, 1974, Pan Am Flight 812 (PA812), operated by a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321B crashed into rough mountainous terrain while preparing for a runway 09 approach to Denpasar after a 4-hour 20-minute flight from Hong Kong. At least 107 were killed in the air accident.

The 1991 Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crash happened on 5 October 1991 when Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130H-30 Hercules, A-1324, crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta-Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport due to an engine fire. In the air crash, 135 were killed, including 121 airmen, 12 crew and 2 on the ground.

On 30 June 2015, a Lockheed KC-130B Hercules belonging to the Indonesian Air Force with 12 crew and 109 passengers on board, crashed near a residential neighborhood shortly after taking off from Medan, Indonesia, en route to Tanjung Pinang. All aboard were killed, along with 22 people on the ground.

Mandala Airlines Flight 91 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that originated from Polonia International Airport in Medan, Indonesia to Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. On 5 September 2005 at 10:15 WIB (UTC+7), the flight crashed into a heavily populated residential area, seconds after taking off in Medan. There were 149 fatalities.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight, operated by AirAsia Group affiliate Indonesia AirAsia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A320-216, registered as PK-AXC, msn: 3648, crashed into the Java Sea during bad weather, killing all 155 passengers and seven crew on board. Two days after the crash, debris from the aircraft and human remains were found floating in the Java Sea.

On 26 September 1997, Flight 152, on final approach into Polonia International Airport, crashed into mountainous woodlands 30 miles (48 km) from Medan during low visibility caused by the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. All 234 passengers and crew were killed. The crash site was in a ravine near the village of Buah Nabar in the Sibolangit district south of Medan. With 234 fatalities, it is the deadliest airline disaster in Indonesia's history. </s> The plane was on its way from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung province, to Batam in the Riau Islands. (Photo: Representational Image)

Jakarta: An Indonesian police plane carrying 13 people went missing on Saturday on a short domestic flight and is feared crashed, police said, the latest blow to the country's aviation sector.

The M28 Skytruck plane lost contact with air traffic control during what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour flight in western Indonesia.

"Fishermen found clothes, suitcases and air plane seats we fear belong to the plane," national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told AFP.

The plane was on its way from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung province, to Batam in the Riau Islands.

An earlier police statement said the plane had set off at 9:24 am but that air traffic control lost contact with the plane at 10:15 am. It was carrying five crew and eight passengers.

Indonesia's search and rescue team have been deployed and Singapore said it was also helping as the incident happened close to the city-state. Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has experienced several air disasters recently.

Last week, an Indonesian army helicopter crashed on Borneo island leaving three crew dead, while in November a cargo plane crashed in Papua region killing four. </s> The head of Indonesia's national transport safety agency says it will offer to assist the Ethiopian investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane.

The same model of plane, operated by Lion Air, crashed in Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people on board. Like the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, which killed 157 people, the Lion Air jet had erratic speed in the few minutes it was in the air.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, chairman of the National Safety Transportation Board, said Monday that Indonesia can be a party to Ethiopia's investigation because one of its citizens was among those who died in the crash.

He said, "However, we will also offer to assist the investigation process." </s> A helicopter crashed in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province yesterday, killing one person on the ground.

All eight people on board, including six Chinese nationals and two crew members, were injured.

A Xinhua report said the helicopter, which belonged to Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, was attempting to land at the company's helipad in Morowali regency when it hit two employees on the ground, killing one of them and wounding the other.
An Indonesian military Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes in Papua province killing all 13 people on board.