Indonesian ATR 42-500 aircraft disappears near Makassar with 11 on board, wreckage sighted on mountain

An Indonesian ATR 42-500 aircraft went missing near Makassar on Saturday, but is now believed to have crashed as its wreckage was spotted on a mountain, as per several media reports.

The turboprop ATR 42-500 operated by the Indonesia Air Transport was on the way from Yogyakarta to the capital city of South Sulawesi when it vanished from radar, said Endah Purnama Sari, a spokesperson for the Transportation Ministry, as per the Associated Press.

“The sightings were reported to authorities and are being verified by rescue teams attempting to reach the area,” said Maj. Gen. Bangun Nawoko, the South Sulawesi's Hasanuddin military commander, as per AP.

ATR has said that their specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation led by the Indonesian authorities and the operator.

An Indonesian agency has revealed that air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft after 1:00 pm local time, when it was in the region of Maros, which lies in the South Sulawesi province.

Sari said the plane disappeared shortly after being instructed by air traffic control to correct its approach alignment. “After the last ATC instructions, radio contact was lost and controllers declared the emergency distress phase.”

The aircraft, which was being operated by the country's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, went missing from radar at 04:20 UTC, which is around 20 km from the Makassar airport, as per Flightradar24.

The local search and rescue agency's head told news agency AFP that teams were deployed to the mountainous area of Maros Regency, which was the last known location of the plane.

The air force, police, and volunteers have taken part in the search.

Indonesia, which is a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, is heavily dependent on air transport to connect the thousands of islands within its territory.

Indonesia's poor aviation record

The country's aviation record is poor. It has seen several deadly crashes in recent years.

In September 2025, a helicopter which had six passengers on board along with two crew members, crashed shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province. Everyone on board died in the accident.

Less than a couple of weeks later, another chopper crashed in the Papua district of Ilaga, killing four passengers onboard.