JAKARTA All 54 people on board a Trigana Air aircraft were killed in a crash two days ago in Indonesia's Papua province, the latest in a string of aviation disasters in the Southeast Asian archipelago, officials said on Tuesday. 
 
 Major-General Heronimus Guru, operations director at Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, told a news conference in the capital the passengers' remains were being put into body bags but poor weather had hampered efforts to recover them by air. 
 
 Officials have declined to comment on the cause of Sunday's crash until the results of an investigation by the national transport safety committee are known, but Guru said the terrain in Indonesia's easternmost province may have been a factor. 
 
 "There's a possibility the aircraft hit a peak and then fell into a ravine because the place that it was found in is steep," he said. 
 
 The treacherous terrain of forest-covered ridges hampered rescuers' efforts to reach the site where the Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 plane came down. 
 
 The aircraft's black box flight recorder, which should provide investigators with some answers, was found in the early afternoon. The device will be taken to Oksibil town tomorrow, depending on the weather, Guru said. 
 
 Television broadcast footage of rescuers in camouflage fatigues and surgical masks hacking through foliage and sifting through debris at the crash site as a helicopter hovered overhead. 
 
 There were 44 adult passengers, five children and infants and five crew on the short-haul flight from provincial capital Jayapura south to Oksibil. 
 
 The twin turboprop aircraft was also carrying about $470,000 as part of a village assistance program. 
 
 Poor infrastructure in the province means aid money is often flown in by air, said Abu Sofjan, spokesman for the national postal service, four of whose workers were among the passengers. 
 
 There was no suggestion the money was somehow linked to the crash. 
 
 Five members of the Bintang Highlands district parliament and government were also on board, online news service detik.com reported. Reuters was not able to verify the report. 
 
 All on board were Indonesian, officials have said. 
 
 Officials of Trigana, placed on a European Union list of banned carriers since 2007 over safety or regulatory concerns, were not immediately available for comment. 
 
 The aircraft made its first flight 27 years ago, online database Aviation Safety Network says. Trigana Air Service has a fleet of 14 aircraft, which are 26.6 years old on average, according to the airfleets.net database. 
 
 Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, Aviation Safety Network says. Besides the latest crash, it has written off 10 aircraft. 
 
 Indonesia has a patchy aviation record, with two other major crashes in the past year. 
 
 In December, an AirAsia flight went down in the Java Sea, killing all 162 on board. More than 100 people died in June in the crash of a military transport plane. 
 
 Indonesia scored poorly on a 2014 safety audit by the U.N. aviation agency, largely because its Ministry of Transportation is understaffed, said two sources familiar with the matter, as the country struggles to cope with the rapid expansion of air travel. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen; Writing by Nicholas Owen; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alan Raybould) ||||| JAKARTA Treacherous terrain in Indonesia's Papua province on Monday hampered rescuers' efforts to reach a passenger plane that crashed with 54 aboard, the latest in a string of aviation disasters in the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago. 
 
 Rescuers have yet to detect the aircraft's black boxes and news of survivors depends on a ground team now trekking slowly towards the mountainous area, the rescue official overseeing the search said. 
 
 "If it collided into a mountain, there has never been a case of survivors. But who knows, let's wait," said Major-General Heronimus Guru, operations director at Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency. 
 
 Rescue teams arriving at the site will have to build a helipad to fly in help, Guru told a news conference in the Indonesian capital, adding that 266 people were involved in the operation, while 11 aircraft scoured the thickly forested area. 
 
 As dusk falls in Papua, search operations will resume at 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday, depending on the weather. 
 
 Guru displayed grainy photographs of what is believed to be the site of Sunday's crash of the Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 plane, in the heavily forested Bintang Mountains district. 
 
 Officials of Trigana, placed on the European Union's list of banned carriers since 2007 over safety or regulatory concerns, were not immediately available to respond to questions from Reuters. 
 
 There were 44 adult passengers, five children and infants and five crew on the short-haul flight from Sentani Airport in Jayapura, capital of the province of Papua, south to Oksibil. 
 
 All aboard were Indonesian nationals, officials have said. 
 
 Earlier reports have said the aircraft was carrying cash of about $470,000 destined for remote villages, as part of an official assistance program. 
 
 Poor infrastructure in Indonesia's easternmost province means that assistance money is often flown in by air, said post office spokesman Abu Sofjan. 
 
 There was no suggestion the large sum of money carried on the plane was linked to the crash. 
 
 Guru told reporters the cash was not a priority and confirmation of the cause of the crash would have to await an official investigation by a national transport safety panel. 
 
 "I feel that it collided into a mountain, but let's wait for the KNKT," he said, referring to the panel by its official name, the National Transportation Safety Commmittee. 
 
 Erratic weather could have played a role in the crash, said another official. 
 
 "It's the weather there, it changes all the time. In the morning it can be clear and hot, and then suddenly it rains," said Sito, a communications operator with the rescue agency in Jayapura. 
 
 A Super Puma helicopter crashed in the same area last year, said Sito, who goes by one name, like many Indonesians. 
 
 The crashed ATR 42-300 made its first flight 27 years ago, the Aviation Safety Network says. Trigana Air Service has a fleet of 14 aircraft, aged 26.6 years on average, the airfleets.com database says. 
 
 Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, online database Aviation Safety Network says. Besides the latest crash, it has written off 10 aircraft. 
 
 Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record, with two major plane crashes in the past year. 
 
 One involved an AirAsia flight that went down in the Java Sea, killing all 162 aboard. In June, more than 100 people died in the crash of a military transport plane, prompting Indonesia's president to promise a review of the ageing air force fleet. 
 
 ($1=13,785 rupiah) 
 
 (Additional reporting by Eveline Danubrata; Writing by Nicholas Owen; Editing by John Chalmers and Clarence Fernandez) ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The missing plane, pictured in 2010 
 
 The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been spotted in the remote western Papua region, officials say. 
 
 The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil. 
 
 Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found by local people in the Bintang highlands region. 
 
 A search plane has also now spotted suspected debris. 
 
 Indonesia's postal office has told the BBC that the plane was carrying four bags containing cash, about 6.5 billion rupiah ($486,000; £300,000), for villagers living in remote places in Papua. 
 
 "Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there," said the head of Jayapura's post office, Haryono, who goes by only his first name. 
 
 'Pray together' 
 
 The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. It is not yet known if anyone survived. 
 
 It took off from Sentani airport in Jayapura at 14:21, but lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour later. 
 
 Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near a waterfall by a search plane on Monday, and that ground teams were preparing to head to the area. 
 
 Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, told AP news agency that "smoke was still billowing" from the debris spotted by their plane. He said bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the site. 
 
 Villagers had earlier told officials that a plane had crashed into a mountain. 
 
 Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his condolences on Twitter and called for the country to "pray together" for the victims. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Family members have been waiting for news of their loved ones 
 
 Oksibil, which is about 280km (175 miles) south of Jayapura, is a remote, mountainous region, which is extremely difficult to navigate. 
 
 Bad weather is believed to have been a possible reason for the crash. 
 
 The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions. 
 
 On blacklist 
 
 Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network. 
 
 It has been on a European Union blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. All but four of Indonesia's certified airlines are on the list. 
 
 Indonesia has suffered two major air disasters in the past year. 
 
 Last December an AirAsia plane crashed in the Java Sea, killing all 192 people on board - and in July a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan, Sumatra claiming 140 lives. 
 
 Have you been affected by this story? You can share your comments by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. 
 
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– Dozens of rescuers have made their way to the mountainous area where an Indonesian passenger plane crashed on Sunday, but they haven't found anybody to rescue. Officials say all 54 people on board—44 adult passengers, five children, and five crew members—were killed when the Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 crashed in Papua province, Reuters reports. "The plane was totally destroyed and all the bodies were burned and difficult to identify," Indonesia's top search and rescue official tells the AP. He says all 54 bodies have been recovered, along with the plane's black boxes, which are in good condition. The turboprop plane crashed into the mountain around 30 minutes into a 42-minute flight without making a distress call, CNN reports. The cause of the crash hasn't been determined, though officials believe the rugged terrain may have played a role. "There's a possibility the aircraft hit a peak and then fell into a ravine because the place that it was found is steep," a search and rescue official tells Reuters, which notes that Trigana has a very patchy safety record, with 14 serious incidents since it started flying in 1991, including 10 in which the aircraft was destroyed. The plane was also carrying $468,750 in cash, which was to be distributed to poor families.