The team searching for a Merpati Nusantara Airlines flight that disappeared in Papua with 21 people onboard said they had spotted debris that looks like a plane’s tail in a forest near Bintang mountain on Tuesday. The search and rescue team could not yet confirm if it was the tail of the missing Merpati Twin Otter. Bintang mountain is located near Oksibil, the town where the plane was supposed to arrive at 2:05 p.m. local time on Sunday. The plane left Jayapura at 1:10 p.m., but lost contact with air traffic controllers at 1:35 p.m.. It has been speculated that the pilot may have lost visibility due to bad weather, but the chairman of the Indonesian Pilots Federation, Cpt. Monatar Napitupulu, said that there are a special set of standard procedures for pilots who fly in Papua. “No matter how close you are to the destination, if your visibility is decreasing you have to return to base,” Napitupulu told TVOne. The special rules are based on Papua’s unpredictable weather and landscape, which has led to a number of plane crashes in the region. Much of Papua is covered with impenetrable jungles and mountains and, in the past, some crashed planes there have never been found. On Monday, the Transportation Ministry said it was looking at a plan to change flight routes and to install a satellite system for all airlines operating in the province.
