Small plane with 4 on board missing in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Saturday, 25 August 2012 20:14

Accident - Accident and Incident

An airport official in Indonesia says a small plane is missing on Borneo island with an Australian and three other people on board.

The similar type missing small plane which an Australian on board on East

Kalimantan island.

The plane, which had been chartered by the company, Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan province on the eastern side of Borneo, on Friday morning, 24 August 2012.

 

It was carrying one pilot, two Indonesian men and Mr Elliott on a scheduled 90-minute flight to survey a coalmining site.

The Australian has been confirmed as Peter Elliott, founder and general manager of Perth-based survey company Elliott Geophysics International

Rajoki Aritonang said the Cessna aircraft was chartered by Elliott Geophysics International and failed to return from a surveying mission in Bontang. Aritonang is chief of Temindung Airport in Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan.

The plane left Samarinda on Friday morning for a 90-minute flight to survey a coal mining site. It was carrying the pilot, two other Indonesians and the company's Australian owner.

 

National Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso said an eight-member team was sent to search the area where the plane lost radio contact with the airport on Saturday morning.

A member of Mr Elliott's family confirmed on Saturday morning that he was on the plane.

Mr Elliott founded Elliott Geophysics in 1987.

 

The similar type missing small plane which an Australian on board on

East Kalimantan island.

The company specializes in geophysics and geology for mineral, oil, coal and groundwater exploration and has an office in Jakarta.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta was providing consular assistance to Mr Elliott's family.

 

Searching continued used two Piper PA-31 Navajo aircrafts

 

Searchers were hunting today for a small plane missing on Borneo island with an Australian and three other people on board, Indonesian officials said.

Two rescue helicopters were flying close to the route the Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft was taking before it lost contact with authorities last morning minutes after takeoff from an airport in the city of Samarinda on Borneo, said the airport’s chief Rajoki Aritonang.

 

Aritonang said that satellite images showed the aircraft’s latest position on last afternoon was within the Kutai National Park, about 30 km east of Bontang, a mining town, and that the plane was running critically low on fuel.

Rugged, forested terrain and bad weather prevented 75 rescuers from reaching the site by foot, and no trace of the plane has been found, said Indonesian search and rescue agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso.

 

The plane was chartered by Elliott Geophysics International, a Perth, Australia-based company, and failed to return from a surveying mission in Bontang.(JP/Sky News/AC)

 

The Associated Press