"The bodies are still being evacuated. I will inform you (reporters) on further dvelopments minute by minute ," Adjunct Senior Commissioner Antonius Wantri Julianto, head of the Kaimana police, was quoted as telling the local media.
An eyewitness said the plane had been flying around for less than 15 minutes over Kaimana before it crashed into the sea.
"We don`t know whether it was because of bad weather or something else because we have yet to conduct an investigation," he said.
At the moment, Antonius said, the evacuation of the victims bodies was still in progress. Of all the people who had been on the plane, , 27 had so far been confirmed dead.
"Search and Rescue (SAR) teams are still trying to find more living or dead victims." he added.
Meanwhile, a director of Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Sardjono Jhony, said the plane was carrying 21 passengers.
"We have been collecting their data since an hour ago. Rescue teams have gone to the location and we`re still waiting for more information from them," Jhony said.
Bambang S. Ervan, a Transportation Ministry spokesman, said there had been 18 adults, two children and one baby on board the plane which took off from Sorong. The weather turned bad when the plane was about to land.
"The plane`s crew consisted of a pilot, a co-pilot and two engineers but it is unclear how many flight attendances there were," he added.(*)
(KR-FNY/HAJM/f001)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
