All three crew members survived after a water-bombing helicopter crashed into Indonesia’s Barito River on 8 November, the national disaster agency BNPB said, according to ANTARA News.
The chartered Eurocopter EC225LP Super Puma, registered as VH-HGM, went down near Tabatan Village in Kuripan subdistrict, Barito Kuala district, South Kalimantan, while supporting efforts to fight forest and land fires. ANTARA reported that the aircraft was privately owned and chartered by BNPB for aerial firefighting.
BNPB’s acting head of disaster information, Berton SP Panjaitan, said emergency teams had been directed to the site and officials were assembling a full account of the incident, ANTARA reported. The agency said the cause of the crash remained unknown and was under investigation.
In a report based on BNPB information, Kompas.com said amateur footage appeared to show the helicopter losing control while manoeuvring after collecting water from the river with a Bambi bucket. That account describes what the footage appeared to show; it does not establish why the aircraft crashed.
The incident came four days after an Indonesian Army Mi-17V5 helicopter crashed during a firefighting mission in Central Kalimantan. ANTARA reported that three soldiers died and five crew members survived in that 4 November crash. The Navy recovered the helicopter’s flight data recorder on 7 November, and it was handed to the investigation team.
Investigators have not announced a cause for the Barito River crash. BNPB was still gathering information and overseeing recovery operations, according to ANTARA’s report.
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