A cargo plane crashed into a hillside in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province Thursday, killing all six people on board, police said, according to AP. The Avia Star was carrying food and building supplies from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the nearby district of Wamena, said Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto, the local police chief. The bodies of the pilot, co-pilot and four crew members were pulled from the smoldering wreckage of the British-manufactured BAe 146-300, he said. An investigation was under way. It was not clear what caused the accident, but a witness told the Antara news agency that the plane circled the hill before tumbling from the sky. There are few roads in Papua, which occupies the western half of New Guinea, and air travel is a necessity. It is considered one of the world's most dangerous places to fly. Many areas are mountainous and prone to dangerously low clouds and sudden weather changes. The BAe 146 is medium-sized plane that is popular in remote, hilly areas because it can take off and land on short runways.
