A search opertion has begun in Indonesia's eastern region of Papua after a passenger plane with 16 people went missing on Sunday.

The aircraft, a propeller-driven Twin Otter owned by Merpati airlines, disappeared while on a 50 minute flight from Sentani airport near Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, headed for the town of Oksibil, near the border with Papua New Guinea.

Two rescue aircraft took off on Monday to begin the seach after bad weather had earlier hampered efforts to begin a hunt for the missing plane.

The aircraft which was carrying enough fuel for three-and-a-half hours flying is believed to have crashed, although no wreckage has been spotted.

"We're focusing our search on the border between Kerom and Pegunungan Bintang istricts... it's a mountainous, jungly region," Suwandi Miharja, the air force commander overseeing the search, told the AFP news agency.

"They're flying beneath the clouds. The weather is unfriendly... foggy and rainy."

Lost contact

Ground controllers lost contact with the plane as it flew over densely forested and mountainous area.

Indonesia has suffered a series of air disasters in recent years, affecting both its commercial and military aircraft.

Last month, the European Union removed four Indonesian airlines - flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Mandala, Airfast and Premiair - off its blacklist of banned carriers, citing safety improvements.

However, the ban remains in place for all other Indonesian airlines.

Air travel is one of the few options for long-distance travel in sparsely-populated Papua and accidents are relatively common.

In the past some aircraft thought to have crashed in the region's dense jungle have never been found.