UPDATE: Missing Indonesian Plane reportedly found crashed in remote Papua region

Missing Indonesian plane has been found by local villagers. says Indonesia's transport ministry.

The Triana Air Service owned twin-turboprop aircraft lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday in the remote, forested eastern Papua region.

There were no reports yet of any survivors. Indonesia's transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata told news agencies search and rescue teams would head to the site at first light on Monday. The two eight-member teams would leave Jayapura at 6am AEST.

The plane left Jayapura's Sentani Airport for Oksibil, the capital of Papua province due south of Jayapura, at 2.33pm and lost contact at 2.55pm.

Ten minutes before it was due to land, the plane contacted Oksibil control tower asking to descend, Captain Beny Sumaryanto, Trigana Air's service director of operations, said.

But the plane never arrived. Half an hour later, Trigana Air sent another turboprop plane over the same route to look for the missing aircraft, he said.

"We strongly suspect it's a weather issue. It is not overcapacity, as the plane could take 50 passengers," Sumaryanto said.

Mr Barata confirmed the plane had lost contact and said it was supposed to arrive at Oksibil airport just after 4pm.

"We are not sure what happened to the plane yet and we are co-ordinating with local authorities," he said.

"The weather is currently very bad there, it's very dark and cloudy. It's not conducive for a search. The area is mountainous."

The agency's Jayapura office coordinated an earlier search, a separate tweet read as dusk fell in the tropics.

Papua police spokesman Patridge Renwarin told detik.com that police and the Indonesian army sent response teams after locals reported seeing a plane crash in Bape village in the Bintang mountains in Oksibil.

Air transport is commonly used in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 had its first flight 27 years ago. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica.

Source: +SMH.com.au