"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 plane lost contact with the airport minutes before it was scheduled to land (file photo)  Photo: Achdiyatma Reza

As poor weather prevented a search, the agency said the ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane lost contact with air traffic control at 2.55pm local time, about 33 minutes after take-off and just five minutes before it was due to arrive at Oksibil.

Much of Papua is covered with impenetrable jungles and mountains. Some planes that have crashed there in the past have never been found.

Indonesia is known for its poor safety record and has numerous airlines – including Trigana – that are on the European Union’s list of carriers banned from European airspace.

Last December, an AirAsia passenger jet crashed during a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board. The government subsequently introduced tougher air safety regulations. A final report on the crash is due to be released this month but authorities have indicated the disaster was caused by an attempt to avoid heavy weather.

In June, more than 100 people died after a military plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in Medan, the country’s third-largest city. The president has promised a review of the air force's ageing fleet.

Analysts say Indonesian regulators have struggled to keep a watch on the airline sector, particularly the large number of low-cost carriers which haveemerged in recent years to ferry people around the sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands.