A tragic helicopter accident in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province has claimed the lives of all eight individuals aboard the aircraft, according to rescue officials who are now working to recover bodies and aircraft debris from the remote crash site.
Mohammad Syafii, director of Indonesia’s national rescue agency, reported that the Airbus H130 aircraft vanished from communication systems Thursday morning just five minutes following its departure from a plantation site in the Melawi region.
“The location of the crash or loss of contact is in a densely forested area with steep hilly terrain,” Syafii explained, noting that recovery teams have located suspected helicopter tail debris roughly 3 kilometers west of the point where radio contact ended.
Officials have not yet determined what caused the fatal accident. Local rescue agency representatives confirmed that both crew members and all six passengers perished in the crash.
Recovery operations continued Friday as rescue teams, supported by military and police units, worked to access the crash location through overland routes. Syafii indicated that the plantation facility was operated by Indonesian palm oil corporation Citra Mahkota, while the aircraft was owned by Matthew Air Nusantara.
