Crew member missing as Indonesian water-bombing helicopter crashes

JAKARTA – A helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires crashed into a river on Nov 8 as it scooped water, an official told AFP, with two crew members rescued and one still missing.The crash in Borneo Island’s South Kalimantan province was the second in days involving a firefighting helicopter, after a military chopper plunged into the waters off Borneo on Nov 4, killing three people.Two Australian nationals had survived the Nov 8 incident and were “safe”, said Berton Panjaitan, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, while the third member of the crew, an Indonesian, remained unaccounted for.Dramatic video footage showed the firefighting helicopter being slowly dragged downward after filling its bucket from the Barito River, eventually plunging nose-first into the water.The South-east Asian archipelago has for months been struggling to control blazes that have burned through large swathes of Sumatra, Borneo and Papua islands, causing choking haze that drifted to neighbouring Malaysia, East Timor and Singapore.“This incident occurred while the air fleet was conducting a water-bombing operation,” spokesman Berton said of the Nov 8 crash.“In footage captured by an amateur video, the helicopter appears to lose control while manoeuvring after scooping up water from the river with a bambi bucket.”The Eurocopter EC225LP Super Puma belonged to a company the disaster mitigation agency had contracted for water-bombing operations, he added.On Nov 4, a helicopter carrying eight people crashed during a mission to fight fires in Tanjung Puting National Park, home to animals including critically endangered Bornean orang utans.The incident occurred while the aircraft was scooping seawater for water bombing, according to an army statement, which added that the accident’s cause was under investigation.Aside from ground-based firefighters, Indonesia has relied heavily on air operations to fight the fires that have destroyed more than 1.9 million ha, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas.The fires are driven in part by a strong El Nino weather phenomenon, which in Indonesia typically causes drought. AFP