Merpati Plane Crash, MZ8968, in Indonesia no survivors on Chinese built Xian MA60 : Update

A Merpati Nusantara airlines, flight MZ8968, MA-60 crashed with 27 people on board just before landing in Kaimana. The twin turbo-prop plane took off from Sorong city in West Papua province for Kaimana district about 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the south. It crashed into Kaimana Bay just several hundred yards from the airport. A transport ministry spokesman reported 21 passengers and 2 crew members 2 flight attendants and 2 technicians were on the flight and there are no survivors. Kaimana Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Antonius Wantri Julianto said the plane, from Sorong in West Papua, had been circling the airport for 15 minutes before the accident.

A local airport official said bad weather could be a factor.

“I can confirm that all the passengers were killed when the plane exploded as it crashed into the sea,” a navy officer involved in the search told ElShinta radio.

“The aircraft was smashed to pieces… We found 15 bodies floating on the water and the other passengers are trapped inside the wreckage.”

The navy official, Gunawan, said about 10 navy divers had tried to locate other passengers inside the wreckage, located at about six kilometres deep.

“We had difficulties locating them due to strong currents and limited equipment,” he said adding that the accident took place about 400 metres from the coastline.
Heavy downpour Saturday in eastern Indonesia.

Reportedly of the 25 people onboard the Merpati flight, there were two children, one baby, 18 adults, two pilots and two cabin crew.

According to wikipedia :

The airline was established and started operations on 6 September 1962. It was set up by the Indonesian government as the second state airline, with the main objective of taking over the network of domestic services developed by the Air Force since 1958. During 1962, it also took over the routes in Papua (formerly New Guinea) previously operated by KLM subsidiary, De Kroonduif, which had been flown by Garuda since 1962. In October 1978, the airline was taken over by Garuda, but continued to operate under its own name. Merpati was integrated into the Garuda Indonesia Group in September 1989, but was granted government permission to separate in 1993, although the split did not actually take place until April 1997. It is owned by the Indonesian Government (93.2%) and Garuda Indonesia (6.8%).

Update Note:

This flight is being reported by major news organizations as flight MZ 868. I can find no reference to this code and have reported the flight as MZ 8968. I have reviewed the Merpati website and verified the flight from Sorong city in West Papua province to Kaimana Airport is listed as MZ8968. I have included an image of a scheduled flight.

I tried to correct a Wikipedia page for Merpati Airlines and it was re-altered by someone to the original flight number reported.