JAKARTA: A helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires crashed right into a river on Sunday (Nov 8) because it scooped water, an official instructed AFP, with two crew members rescued and one nonetheless lacking.
The crash in Borneo Island’s South Kalimantan province was the second in days involving a firefighting helicopter, after a army chopper plunged into the waters off Borneo on Wednesday, killing three individuals.
Two Australian nationals had survived Sunday’s incident and had been “secure”, stated Berton Panjaitan, a spokesman for the nationwide catastrophe mitigation company, whereas the third member of the crew, an Indonesian, remained unaccounted for.
Video footage exhibits the firefighting helicopter being slowly dragged downward after filling its bucket from the Barito River, finally plunging nose-first into the water.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has for months been struggling to manage blazes which have burned by giant swathes of Sumatra, Borneo and Papua islands, inflicting choking haze that drifted to neighbouring Malaysia, East Timor and Singapore.
“This incident occurred whereas the air fleet was conducting a water-bombing operation,” spokesman Berton stated of Sunday’s crash.
“In footage captured by an beginner video, the helicopter seems to lose management whereas manoeuvring after scooping up water from the river with a bambi bucket.”
The Eurocopter EC225LP Tremendous Puma belonged to an organization the catastrophe mitigation company had contracted for water-bombing operations, he added.
On Wednesday, a helicopter carrying eight individuals crashed throughout a mission to battle fires in Tanjung Puting Nationwide Park, dwelling to animals together with critically endangered Bornean orangutans.
The incident occurred whereas the plane was scooping seawater for water bombing, in response to a military assertion, which added that the accident’s trigger was underneath investigation.
Except for ground-based firefighters, Indonesia has relied closely on air operations to battle the fires which have destroyed greater than 1.9 million hectares, in response to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas.
The fires are pushed partly by a robust El Nino climate phenomenon, which in Indonesia usually causes drought.