Three Election Officials And National Elections Ballots On Board

Timika Air Base commander Easter Haryanto has confirmed that all of the eleven persons aboard a single-engine plane that crashed on Mount Gergaji in the Papua province of remote eastern Indonesia last Friday have perished.

Agence France-Presse reports nine passengers and two crew were enroute Friday morning from Ilaga to Kota Mulia, a remote town in the highlands, when their Pilatus PC-6 Porter (type shown above) operated by state-owned Mimika Air went down in the Mount Gergaji area. Officials told CNN on Friday they were receiving a signal from the plane, presumably from an onboard ELT.

Sunday, Haryanto announced that rescuers had located and reached the wreckage of the plane on a Mount Gergaji slope. Bad weather the day of the crash had prevented rescuers from initiating an immediate search for the missing aircraft.

"We confirm that all passengers and crew members are dead," he said. "The bodies are still in the plane and we hope to transfer them into body bags today and fly them to Ilaga Monday for identification."

Among the passengers were three election officials, including the secretary of the province's electoral commission, and two children. The chartered flight was carrying ballot papers from national elections held on April 9.

FMI: www.indonesia.go.id/en