Search for Indonesia plane missing with 10 people on board

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MAKASSAR - Indonesian authorities are searching for a small passenger plane after contact was lost on Saturday with the aircraft carrying 10 people, rescue officials told AFP.

The Indonesia Air Transport turboprop plane left from Yogyakarta and was headed for the city of Makassar on Sulawesi island, according to the Makassar search and rescue agency.

There were three passengers and seven crew members on board, the airline said. Rescuers earlier gave a figure of 11 people.

Contact with the plane was lost shortly after 1:00 pm (0600 GMT).

Muhammad Arif Anwar, the head of the local search and rescue agency, said teams were deployed to a mountainous area of Maros Regency, which borders Makassar, near the last known location of the plane.

The search on land and by air involved the air force, police and volunteers, he added.

Andi Sultan, operations chief at the Makassar search and rescue agency, said a helicopter and drones were being used to find the plane.

The aircraft manufacturer, France-based firm ATR, said it had been informed of "an accident" involving one of its planes.

"ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation led by the Indonesian authorities and the operator," the company said in a statement.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.

The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal crashes in recent years.

In September last year, a helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province, killing everybody on board.

Less than two weeks later, four people were killed when another helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.