The Fisheries Minister says three ministry staff on the plane operated by Indonesia Air Transport.
Published on January 17, 2026
Indonesian authorities are searching for the plane carrying three government employees and at least seven crew members after it lost contact, officials said.
The fisheries surveillance plane was en route to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, before contact was lost, Andi Sultan, head of operations for the Makassar Search and Rescue Agency, told Reuters.
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They said air traffic control lost contact with the ATR 42-500 aircraft operated by Indonesia Air Transport at 1:30 p.m. (0530 GMT) Saturday near Maros region in South Sulawesi province.
He declined to comment on the possible cause of the incident.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Shakti Wahyu Trenggono said at a press conference on Saturday that the plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, was carrying three employees from his ministry.
Reports on the number of crew members vary. Sultan said there were eight passengers on board, while news agency AFP, citing the airline, said there were seven.
The plane was chartered by Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, ministry official Pung Nugroho Saxono told state news agency Antara.
Sultan said the search and rescue agency suspected the plane had come down near the summit of Mount Bulusarang, adding that around 400 personnel, including military and police units, were deployed to search for the plane, though efforts were hampered by bad weather.
According to unconfirmed Flightradar24 data, an aircraft matching the description was flying east over the Java Sea at about 11,000 feet (approximately 3,350 meters) before rapidly losing altitude and leaving the tracking system.
The ATR 42-500 is a regional turboprop aircraft capable of carrying 42 to 50 passengers.
Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR said it had received information that one of its planes had “crashed” and that its specialists were “fully engaged” to support both Indonesian investigators and operators.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal accidents in recent years.