A Sukhoi superjet 100 is missing
 

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 is missing in Indonesia while being on the demo flight.

44 souls on board. :uhoh:

Superjet missing in Indonesia?
 

It's being reported that a Sukhoi Superjet has disappeared during a demonstration flight in Indonesia, during an Asian sales tour for the aircraft.

According to reports, the aircraft had left for what was to have been a 30 minute demonstration flight; after 3 hours (by which time fuel should have been exhausted), the alarm was raised.

More to follow ...

Link to BBC page: BBC News - Russian passenger jet reported missing in Indonesia

A little more here.
 

Sergey Dolya� | Facebook

"It was second demo flight today, first was completed without any issue. Plane was checked before flight. Copter returned recently, found nothing."

Hijacking not ruled out...
 

"Hijacking not ruled out"
 

A media driven non-statement if there ever was one.

Must agree with TwoOneFour and Teddy Robinson. Descending to 6000ft in a mountainous range is also a bit sketchy.

The last RCOM was a pilot's request to descent from 3000 meteres to 2000 meteres in the area where mountains with height in excess of 2000 meters.

Unusual request. Let's hope it wasn't sightseeing or a photo opportunity gone wrong on a demo-flight. Just saying, not concluding.

By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, May 9th 2012 10:31Z, last updated Wednesday, May 9th 2012 11:03Z
A Sukhoi Sukhoi Superjet 100-95, registration RA-97004 performing a demonstration flight from Jakarta Halim Perdanakusuma Airport to Jakarta Halim Perdanakusuma Airport (Indonesia) with 36 passengers, 6 crew and 2 Sukhoi officials, was enroute near Mount Salak and Bogor about 36nm south of Jakarta about 30 minutes into the flight when the radio contact with the aircraft was lost. The aircraft has not turned up at Jakarta or any other airport in the area and would have run out of fuel by now.

No ELT signal has been located so far.

Indonesian Authorities reported the aircraft was enroute at 10,000 feet near Mount Salak when at about 15:30L (08:30Z) the crew requested and was cleared to descend to 6,000 feet. This proved to be the last radio transmission. Radar contact was lost when the aircraft was in a right hand turn descending through 6,200 feet. A search operation has been initiated and is mounting, first search flights have not yet found any trace of the aircraft.

Mount Salak is 2,211 meters/7254 feet high.

The local weatherstation in Bogor reported visibility at 9000 meters (increasing to 10000 meters in the next reading), temperature at 31 degrees C, dew point at 25 degrees C, humidity 70% and winds arund 5 knots from northeast, no precipitation. In the morning the weatherstation had reported low visibility around about 2000 meters.

PS from me: Dolya mentioned that there was low clouds the whole day.

I'm perplexed that there was a request to descend to 6000 feet in that area. The visibility has been particularly bad the last couple of days as well.

Really hope there are some survivors.

Now reported as 46 souls on board.

Apparently many reporters and airline executives on board due to it being a promotional flight...

pained to say it, but this sounds like a CFIT in the making. I've operated around this area for several years and its easy to get it fatally wrong.

Talk about a poorly timed press release....

Sukhoi sales head was onboard :(

Ground Prox
 

How does the ground proximity warning work on this aircraft ?
Which satellites does it navigate off? Russian or US GPS based ?
Radar inop to determine terrain ?

I don't know about Bogor but the weather wasn't flash at Halim this afternoon.

Chappy Hakim (ex Chief of Indo Air Force) was on TV at 6.30pm saying no SAR possible this evening due to bad weather in Bogor

Somebody (?) tweeted from one of the passenger name:

https://twitter.com/#!/aremookephy

Update from Jakarta Globe
 

Update: Indonesian Airline Reps Aboard Missing Russian Plane | The Jakarta Globe

Apparently list of passengers published at Halim Airport

Looks like some Airline representatives from Indonesian Carriers and journalists.

Although looking unlikely hope that this does not turn out as bad as it looks

Google Translate on the last few tweets yields:

• Nicholas Martyshenko here too, carried pic.twitter.com/dxi30I9P
• all a bit scared, but the flight attendants take care of all professional, calm pic.twitter.com/dxi30I9P
• (Name), we are on board, we can not communicate with anyone, just my work twitter
• (Name), everything is fine with the Superjet-100, I was on board, they say just a communication problem

The last one is just an hour old (as of now) so well after the Superjet was reported missing. So seems to be good news, if true. One of the comments on the latter photo suggests the interior shot is from a different type of aircraft.

SLF asking:
Why do you know it is from someone on board - and what does the tweet say?

More Local Links Jakarta Post
 

More links from the local press

Be warned one names the crew

Three locals 'saw and heard missing aircraft' | The Jakarta Post

Crew of missing Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner named | The Jakarta Post

Sukhoi Superjet missing over Mt. Salak | The Jakarta Post

http://f2.s.qip.ru/DKMgABBu.jpg
Sergey Dolya ‏ @dolyasergey
Trajectory of flight of the plane. It flew around the mountain and then abruptly changed a course and began sharp decrease where black arrows are

Gerry Soejatman ‏ @GerryS

SSJ100 crash site reported found by SAR heli just prior to aborting due to bad weather. No info on survivors. Awaiting official word.

That pic is certainly not consistent with other pics I've seen of the Superjet's interior. It appears to be more consistent with a 154 as mentioned in the comments.

@aremookephy, I feel, is a fake.

I know a few people on board through business dealings :-(

A close friend of mine is waiting on news on his colleagues at HLP , no news yet

Sad
 

Not the best start for the only EMB 195 competitor!...
:(

Where did the info for this map come from ?

From Sergey Dolya | Facebook , quite famous Russian blogger, this time probably part of media team from Sukhoi side covering the demo flight.

Let us hope for the best...

I would think S and R would have spotted fire by now as it is now dark.And what about an EPIRB or ELT anyone know if it was equipped?

altimetry problem, setting? misunderstood meters and feet? CFIT does seem right

now, I've never flown in that country...in the USA IFR rules are 2000 FEET above mountinous terrain

if mountain was 7,200 feet...9,200 feet would be min (round up to 10,000 maybe).

does anyone remember the air new zealand crash in antartica? hmmmm

Without pre-empting anything experienced local pilots who know that area have come to grief in the past , there's some big mountains out there and the weather can change quickly and get violent.

Add to the fact the crew isn't local ...

A number of sources are now reporting there were 50 persons aboard the flight.

News article

Transportation Ministry air transport director general has not confirmed the Suhoi Superjet 100 to have crasjed because the body of the aircraft and it's passengers have not yet been found

Article

google maps gunung salak - Google Maps

Although close to a major town (Bogor) you can see on this map that the 2 mountains (Salak and Pangrango) are very remote and rugged. I've been off roading in this area (the much smaller mountain gunung bunder to the north) and there's some very wild country out there.

There's a major air force helicopter base 30kms away , if they weren't flying this afternoon looking for the aircraft it says something about the weather around those mountains.

The map posted before showed the aircraft lost contact in the vicinity of Mt Pangrango , the bigger of the 2.

i know this area well. I hope it did not crash onto the hundreds of little hamlets in the valley