10 bodies, black boxes recovered after Indonesia plane crash

MAKASSAR, INDONESIA:  Rescuers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of all 10 victims and both black boxes from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a mountain in eastern Indonesia four days ago.

Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said the bodies of three crew members and seven passengers were flown to Hasanuddin airport in Makassar, the provincial capital. Ambulances took the dead, burned bodies to a nearby hospital for identification. Three passengers were children.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter plane lost contact with air traffic controllers 11 minutes after taking off in good weather Friday from Masamba, a town in South Sulawesi province. No distress signal was received.

Locating the wreckage took almost four days because of the rugged, forested terrain and thick fog.

Soelistyo said the plane's black boxes were in good condition. They were taken to Makassar for examination. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder could help explain what caused the Aviastar Mandiri airline plane to crash.

The 1981 Canadian-made plane was acquired by Aviastar in January 2014 and underwent its most recent maintenance on Sept. 15.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation of about 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, including plane and train crashes and ferry sinkings. The country's airline market is expanding rapidly but struggles to obtain qualified pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers, and modern airport technology.