A land and air search will be conducted to find a Twin Otter aircraft belonging to the state-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines that went missing here on Sunday, ANTARA reported. Chief of the Jayapura air base Col. Suwandi Miharja said here on Sunday that his side was preparing a team and five planes for search of the missing aircraft on Monday (Aug 3) morning. The five planes which be provided are from the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Associated Mission Aviation (AMA), Yayasan Jasa Aviasi Indonesia (Yajasi), Twin Otter of Merpati Airlines and an Air Force Cassa place, he said. The Twin Otter lost contact with the tower while flying between Jayapura and Oksibil on Sunday (Aug 2). The MZ 9760 aircraft which took off from Jayapura at 10.15 a.m. Eastern Indonesia Standar Time (WIT) was scheduled to arrive at 11.05 a.m. WIT, PT. Merpati`s operations director Capt. Nikmatullah said here on Sunday. "After taking off, however, the aircraft didn`t make any contact with the tower," Nikmatullah said, adding that the aircraft carried the pilot, co-pilot, a mechanic, 11 adult passengers and two babies. "Hopefully, it will be fine weather tomorrow and nothing to hamper the search," Suwandi Miharja said. The Twin Otter plane was conducting its routine flights twice daily, the official said. "Before taking off, the Twin Otter plane had already undergone the routine airworthiness check and a full tank for 3.5 hours of flying, but it needs only 55 minutes to cover this route. So, actually there is no problem with its airworthiness. But we will check again in greater detail," he said. In the meantime, ANTAR News reported from Papua that an Avia Star plane also went missing while flying between Dekay and Wamena in Papua on last Monday.
