Crashed flight banned from flying in Europe

  • 17/08/2015
(Reuters)
(Reuters)

It has emerged an airliner that went missing last night while carrying 54 people had such a shocking safety record that it has been banned from flying in Europe.

The Trigana Air plane crashed in the Indonesian province of Papua, where villagers reported seeing wreckage from the flight.

Five children, including two infants were on the plane, among 49 passengers and five crew members.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed there were no New Zealanders on the flight.

The plane was flying from Jayapura to Oksibil – a flight scheduled to only take 42 minutes – when it lost contact with Oksibil Airport, but there was no indication of the pilot having made a distress call.

Heavy rain, strong winds and fog in Oksibil are thought to have played a part in the plane losing contact with the airport just minutes before it was scheduled to land.

Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record. In December, an AirAsia plane flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore crashed in the Java Sea during stormy weather, killing all 162 people on board.

3 News /AFP