A plane carrying 48 people skidded off the runway in Papua, Indonesia, injuring several passengers, according to police reports on Monday......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
The Southeast Asian archipelago has a poor aviation safety record, with Papua’s mountainous terrain and frequent poor weather making flying challenging.
The ATR-42 aircraft, operated by Trigana Air, was departing from an airport in the remote Yapen Islands regency en route to the Papuan capital, Jayapura, when the incident occurred on Monday morning.
The flight was carrying 42 passengers, including a baby, and six crew.
“Praise God everybody survived and has been taken to a hospital for a health checkup,” local police chief Ardyan Ukie Hercahyo said in a statement.
“We are investigating the incident and coordinating with related parties to ensure this will never happen again.”
The local search and rescue agency said in a statement that some passengers were injured and traumatised by the incident.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.
In 2015, a Trigana Air plane crashed there, killing all 54 people on board.