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View all search resultsRescuers recover bodies of 10 passengers in Sulawesi plane crash
There were seven crew members and three passengers on board the plane, which was chartered by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to conduct air surveillance on its fisheries. The passengers were ministry staff members.
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Members of a joint search and rescue team display aircraft debris from an ATR 42-500 near the crash site in the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park area, Maros regency, South Sulawesi, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Antara/Handout-Makassar Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency /Antara/Handout-Makassar Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency )
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escuers on Friday has found the bodies of 10 passengers on a fishery surveillance plane that went missing in Mount Bulusaraung, South Sulawesi, after almost a week of search in the area.
The ATR 42-500 turboprop owned by aviation group Indonesia Air Transport (IAT) lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday at about 1:30 p.m. local time in the mountain area, which is located on the borders of Maros and Pangkep regencies.
There were seven crew members and three passengers on board the plane, which was chartered by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to conduct air surveillance on its fisheries. The passengers were ministry staff members.
Andi Sultan, an official at South Sulawesi's rescue agency, said through tears during a video statement that authorities found the ninth and tenth bodies early on Friday, adding that the evacuation process was still ongoing.
The agency said separately on its Instagram account that 10 victims have been found. Local rescuers previously discovered the wreckage of the plane in different locations around the mountain.
Col. Inf. Dody Triyo Hadi, Assistant Operations Officer of the Hasanuddin Military Command, said a special team has also found the black box on the slopes of the mountain, approximately 150 meters from the summit.
“The black box was found in its original position, attached to the tail of the plane. It remains intact, and the team is currently transporting it to the search and rescue base,” he said on Wednesday.
The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), which probes transport accidents, is currently investigating the contents of the recently-found black box.
The airplane was chartered by the maritime ministry to conduct air surveillance of fisheries.
The Transportation Ministry said the surveillance airplane had passed had passed multiple inspections and regular maintenance checks.
The ministry’s civil aviation director general Lukman F. Laisa said the latest inspection was conducted by the ministry at Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Nov. 19 of last year. Two months before, the plane was granted a new certificate of airworthiness.
“Those records show that the aircraft had undergone routine inspections and regular airworthiness monitoring in accordance with the prevailing regulations,” Lukman said in a statement on Monday.
It was the country’s first deadly crash involving the ATR 42, manufactured by Franco-Italian plane maker ATR in more than a decade. In 2015, a Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 crashed into a mountainside in Papua, killing all 54 people on board.
A Boeing 737-500 jet operated by airline Sriwijaya crashed into the Java sea in 2021, killing 62 people.
