ISIS connection? Lost commercial Trigana airliner may have crashed in Abmisibil, Indonesia

Unconfirmed reports claim Trigana Air flight 267 may have crashed near Abmisibil.

Unconfirmed reports claim Trigana Air flight 267 may have crashed near Abmisibil.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the Trigana Air ATR 42 Turboprop just before 15:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday. It happened shortly after take-off from Jayapura’s Sentani airport the capital of Papua province in Indonesia.

The Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft was carrying 54 people on Sunday in the remote eastern Papua region, according to tweets received by the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS).

44 adult passengers, 5 children and 5 crew members were onboard the Trigana Air Service airliner.

The flight TGN267, an ATR 42 short-range airliner, was going from Jayapura’s Sentani Airport to Oksibil, both in Papua, and was supposed to only take 50 minutes.

The ownership record of the missing aircraft available at Planespotters.com shows that it is almost 25 years old.

Trigana Air Service is currently banned from operating in European airspace.

Media reports are now suggesting that the search for the plane will be delayed until Monday due to poor weather.

Trigana Air Service started operation with 2 Beechcraft SUPER-KING AIR B-200C ( SKA B-200C) fixed wing aircraft in early 1991 and 2 new NBell-412SP helicopter, manufactured by IPTNi (Indonesia Aircraft Industry) Bandung, at the end of that year, The company said on its website, it responded quickly to the high demand for air support to the Indonesian transportation need.

Recently a leaked Australian police report claimed two former pilots for Indonesian airlines were found to have been radicalized by Islamic State after they expressed sympathy for the jihadist group online, while still performing passenger flights for Air Asia Indonesia, and Premiair airline.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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