Plane Crash: 12 year-old boy sole survivor

A 12-year-old boy has been found alive in the wreckage of a plane crash which killed eight people in Indonesia.

Photos from the scene show the boy conscious and looking at the camera.

He was found with the wreckage on a mountainside near the border with Papua New Guinea on Sunday morning.

The Swiss-made Pilatus aircraft he had been travelling in lost contact with air traffic control on Saturday afternoon, shortly before it was due to land at Oksibil airport.

The plane, owned by private charter Dimonim Air, had been travelling from Tanah Merah; about 40 minutes flight south, to Oksibil in the province of Papua when it went down.

It was carrying nine people, including two crew members.

According to news agency AFP, nearby villagers heard a “loud roar followed by an explosion”.

An investigation into the cause of the crash will be carried out, officials said.

The Straitstimes.com reported that Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years.

Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.

Five people died after a small plane crashed near Wamena in Papua province in July last year.

In August 2015, a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana crashed in Papua due to bad weather, killing all 54 people on board.