A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger plane with at least 46 people aboard has been lost contact with as it was on a demonstration flight in Indonesia.
The Russian airplane disappeared from radar screen during a flight meant to last 30 minutes.
Helicopters were dispatched to look for the missing Russian jet, thought to have been flying near a mountain and emergency services confirmed reports on the Sukhoi plane that it was missing.
Gagah Prakoso, spokesman for Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, stated 46 people had been aboard the plane, which vanished from radar near Bogor, a city in West Java province.
‘We are still looking for the plane which is a passenger jet and there are no indications whether the Russian plane crashed,’ Prakoso was quoted as saying by AFP news agency in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Dolya tweeted that there were 44 people aboard, eight of them Russian citizens.
The plane took off from east Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma airport, which is used for some commercial and military flights, at 14:00 (07:00 GMT), the Indonesian search and rescue agency spokesman stated and reported eventually.
‘ At 14:50 it dropped from 10,000ft [3,000m] to 6,000ft,’ the search and rescue agency told AFP.
Herry Bakti, head of the transport ministry’s aviation division, noted the missing Russian aircraft had been on the second of two demonstration flights, and those on board were invited guests.
Russian Superjet Sukhoi missing in Indonesia
The Russian embassy in Jakarta inforemd in a written statement earlier this week that a Sukhoi Superjet 100 demonstration would take place in Jakarta on Wednesday, yet the Russian embassy could not be immediately contacted for comments regarding the fate of the missing Russian passanger jet.
The Superjet, a mid-range airliner that can carry up to 100 people, is military plane-maker Sukhoi’s first commercial aviation plane.
The Superjet was created by a joint venture, majority-owned by Sukhoi, with Italy’s Finmeccanica and a number of other foreign and Russian companies also involved and its a popular aerial vehicle among Russian wealthy merchants.
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