Thirteen people lost their lives on Sunday after an Indonesian Air Force transport plane Hercules C-130 crashed into a mountain in the remote province of Papua located on the eastern side of the country during a training exercise.
The transport plane had taken off from Timika city following which it crashed near its destination of Wamena at 6:15 am local time, Operational Director of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency Ivan Ahmad Riski Titus told Reuters. The plane crashed on Lisuwa mountain and the bodies of the victims have been recovered and brought back to Wamena, he added.
The deceased include three pilots and 10 military personnel, BBC reported. Nobody survived the crash.
Travelling by land is often impossible in the remote and mountainous province of Papua due to which air transport is commonly used.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo had promised to review the country's air force fleet in 2015 following the crash of a military transport plane that claimed the lives of over 100 people.
