Debris that might help to shed some light on the reason for the crash of Indonesia's Trigana Air Service Flight 257 has been spotted by a search plane last Monday.

If proven to be from the Southeast Asian airliner, the debris might be able to shed some light on the crash that killed the flight's 54 passengers and crew.

A ground team originating from Oksibil town, where the airliner was headed, has not been able to get to the debris as yet due to rough, heavily forested terrain and bad weather, according to Raymond Konstantin, an official of Indonesian's search and rescue agency.

Another search plane has been sent to the area to try to confirm if the debris is indeed from the airliner, Col. I Made Susila Adyana, Indonesian Air Force official, stated to Antara, Indonesia's national news agency.

Air traffic control in Papua lost contact with the airliner on Sunday afternoon, as stated on Twitter by Indonesian's search and rescue agency. It left Jayapura's Sentani Airport on schedule at 2:22pm and was scheduled to land in Oksibil some 45 minutes later.

Barely 5 minutes later, flight control lost all contact with the flight, according to J.A. Baratam Transportation Ministry spokesman. No indication was made of a distress call from the plane.

According to authorities, villagers of a remote area of Indonesia's eastern Papua province saw the plane crashing into a mountain.

CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said that there could be various reasons for there not having been a distress call. Perhaps crewmembers were too busy dealing with the situation, or they may just not have known there was trouble.

Although the weather was clear when the flight took off, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera stated that the flight would have encountered some thunderstorms along its route.

Of the 54 people on board the domestic flight, 44 were adults, five were children and five were crew members.

All were reported to be Indonesian, it has been stated. This is Indonesia's third air disaster within the span of eight months.