All eight people on board a private helicopter died on Thursday after the aircraft crashed into dense jungle shortly after takeoff in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
The Airbus H130, owned by PT Matthew Air Nusantara, lost contact with air traffic control five minutes after departing Melawi district. It was flying between palm oil plantations, headed for Kubu Raya district, when it vanished from radar.
Rescuers found the crash site Thursday evening in a dense forest area with steep slopes. The wreckage and the bodies of two crew members and six passengers were recovered in Sekadau district, confirmed the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry.
All eight on board were men. One was a Malaysian national. The bodies were taken to Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan.
Civil aviation director general Lukman F. Laisa confirmed in a statement that the joint search and rescue team had located the crash site and that all passengers and crew members had been confirmed dead. No cause for the crash has been officially announced, and an investigation is expected to follow.
The accident is the latest in a series of fatal helicopter crashes in Indonesia’s Kalimantan region. In September last year, a separate helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed in South Kalimantan province, killing all on board.
