JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AFP) - A light aircraft crashed into a fence during take-off in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, killing the US pilot and a passenger, police said.

The US-made Kodiak plane was carrying six passengers and was chartered to deliver humanitarian supplies to a remote district in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province.

"The American pilot and an Indonesian passenger were killed in the accident. The aircraft partly caught fire," Papua province police spokesman Sulistyo Pudjo told AFP.

The plane crashed into a fence by the tarmac, he said, adding that five other passengers were injured, two of them seriously.

Indonesia, which relies heavily on air transport to connect its more than 17,000 islands, has one of Asia's worst aviation safety records.

The Indonesian region of Papua makes up the western half of New Guinea Island. People there rely on air transport in the absence of a substantial road network in the mountainous terrain with vast tracts of dense jungle.