Searchers today found all 54 bodies in the wreckage of a plane that crashed at the weekend in Indonesia’s Papua province, officials said.

The ATR 42-300 aircraft operated by Trigana Air Service crashed on Sunday just 10 minutes before its scheduled arrival at Oksibil in the mountainous Pegunungan Bintang district.

“If the weather allows, the bodies will be immediately evacuated and handed over to their families once identified,” Transport Ministry spokesperson Hadi Juraid said.

Search chief Bambang Sulistyo said the plane was totally destroyed and many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.

Attempts by rescue workers to reach the location had earlier been hampered by mountainous terrain and bad weather, officials said.

The plane was on a 55-minute flight from the provincial capital Jayapura to Oksibil.

Four of the passengers were post office workers carrying 6.5 billion rupiah (US468,000) in cash, said FX Haryono, the head of the Jayapura post office.

The money was to be distributed to families in Pegunungan Bintang under a government social welfare scheme.

Search official Herunimus Guru said there were no reports of cash being found at the crash site.

Papua relies heavily on air transport because of limited road networks through its jungle.

The crash is the third major air accident in Indonesia in eight months, and is likely to raise more questions about the country’s aviation safety.

On Dec 28, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo midway from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.

In June, at least 141 people were killed after an Indonesian Air Force C-130 plane crashed into a residential area in Medan, North Sumatra and burst into flames.

- dpa