Airliner missing over Indonesia with 54 on board

An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people has lost contact over the country’s easternmost province of Papua, according to officials.

An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people went missing after losing contact with ground control during a short flight in bad weather in the country’s mountainous easternmost province of Papua, officials said.

Local villagers told authorities that they saw a plane crash into a mountain, and scores of rescuers were heading to the remote area and will begin searching there at daybreak on Monday. An air search for the missing plane was suspended and will resume on Monday as well.