14 Apr 2005

Search continues for plane missing in Papua

10:21 am on 14 April 2005

Air and land search teams in the Indonesian province of Papua will begin searching again today for a twin engine plane carrying 17 people that went missing on Tuesday.

The Timika Police chief, Paulus Waterpaw, said late yesterday that three aircraft and a land-based team had searched along a river near the village of Iwaka but had found nothing.

He says heavily forested terrain has hindered the investigation.

There has been no contact with the plane since shortly after it took off on Tuesday morning.

Police had earlier said that the plane, which was flying from Timika to the remote mountain village of Enarotali, was carrying 18 people.