What happened
During an approach to Sorong-Jefman Airport, the flight encountered challenging meteorological conditions characterized by a cloud base of only 500 feet. Because of the limited visibility, the crew was unable to identify the airfield during their descent.
After attempting to navigate through the weather, the decision was made to loiter over the area in hopes that the visibility would increase. However, as the flight progressed, the aircraft began to run low on fuel. Unable to find the landing strip and facing imminent fuel exhaustion, the captain executed a ditching maneuver in the waters located east of the airport.
While the aircraft was lost in the incident, all six crew members were successfully rescued from the scene.
Findings
Investigations into the event concluded that the primary reason for the ditching was fuel exhaustion, which occurred because the crew could not locate the destination airport amidst poor weather conditions.