The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Jakarta

Search teams combed the dense jungle Friday for a missing Indonesian air force plane carrying 18 people, a military spokesman said Friday.

The 1984 Casa-212 military aircraft disappeared during an aerial surveillance mission Thursday after taking off from an airstrip just east of the capital, Jakarta, air force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said.

On board were five crew members and 13 passengers. An Indian, Singaporean and Briton working for Singapore-based Credent Technology were on the flight testing new camera equipment, he said.

On Friday, hundreds of police and soldiers searched the jungle at the base of Salak Mountain, about 60 miles south of Jakarta.

"The aircraft has not been found yet. The area is too large," said police spokesman Yusuf, who like many Indonesian goes by a single name.

Indonesia has seen a spate of airline accidents in recent years, including an Adam Air crash that killed 102 and another by national carrier Garuda that killed 21, leading the European Union to ban all Indonesian airlines.

It was the second incident involving a Casa-212 plane this year in Indonesia after a flight operated by the private Dirgantara Air Service crashed in January with three people aboard.