An Indonesian Air Force C-130H military transport plane crashed in remote Papua highlands in the east of country on Sunday early morning...
An Indonesian Air Force C-130H military transport plane crashed in remote Papua highlands in the east of country on Sunday early morning local time.
The plane crashed in the Lisuwa mountains when flying a 40 minute long flight from Timika to Wamena, carrying 12 tonnes of food supplies to the remote region whose main form of access is through air.
Indonesian Air Force said the pilot onboard were new and the aircraft was on a joint training-logistic flight.
The C-130H crashed just four minutes before its scheduled arrival at the Wamena airport. Poor weather conditions has been cited to be cause of the accident.
The aircraft was completely destroyed in the post crash fire killing all the 13 onboard including 3 pilots and 10 military personnel.
The aircraft with registration A97-005 (A-1334) was retired by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 2012 after 34 years in service.
Four C-130Hs were transferred to the Indonesian Air Force by Australia in 2012 to carryout humanitarian missions. A further five more were cleared for transfer in 2013.
In July 2015 an Indonesian Air Force KC-130B crashed shortly after take off, into a residential area following an engine failure, killing 12 crew and 109 passengers on board.
