A private helicopter crash in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on Borneo island has killed all eight people on board, including two crew members and six passengers, authorities confirmed.
The Airbus helicopter, operated by local company Matthew Air Nusantara, lost contact with air traffic control just five minutes after takeoff on Thursday morning, according to the country’s transport ministry.
Officials said the aircraft went down in a dense forest area with steep slopes. The passengers included seven Indonesians and one Malaysian national, civil aviation director general Lukman F. Laisa said.
Search and rescue teams located the wreckage later the same day, confirming that all occupants had died in the crash.
“The joint search and rescue team successfully located the crash site, and all passengers and crew members have been confirmed dead,” said search and rescue agency head I Made Junetra.
Rescue officials said the victims were recovered from the remote forested terrain and are being transported to the provincial capital Pontianak for identification and formal procedures.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, relies heavily on air transport, but has faced repeated concerns over aviation safety due to a series of fatal accidents in recent years.
Earlier incidents include a fisheries ministry charter plane crash in Sulawesi in January that killed 10 people, a helicopter crash in South Kalimantan in September last year killing eight people, and another fatal helicopter crash in Papua that killed four people shortly afterward.