THE bodies of four passengers of an Indonesian cargo plane that went missing in Papua a week ago have been recovered, said the national search-and-rescue agency today.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter took off from the city of Timika for a short journey to Ilaga, a mountainous region in the remote eastern province of Papua.

Local authorities declared the plane – carrying three crew members, a police officer and 1.7 tonnes of rice – missing when it failed to land hours after take-off.

Today, the rescue agency said four bodies were discovered near the wreckage of the small aircraft.

“The location was difficult to reach because of the dangerous terrain, but thankfully, we managed to recover the victims’ bodies,” the agency’s Budi Purnomo told reporters.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but mountainous Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.

The Southeast Asian archipelago has a poor aviation safety record, and Papua frequently sees bad weather.

In June, a military helicopter with 12 people on board lost contact mere minutes after taking off from a remote part of Papua. The wreckage of the aircraft has yet to be found. – AFP, September 25, 2019.