Military rescue helicopter missing in Indonesia

Sep 11, 2011 |

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A rescue helicopter was feared to have gone down in Indonesia's remote province of Papua during a mission to find two foreign pilots whose plane crashed, the military said Sunday.

The military chopper searching for the Australian and Slovakian pilots from the crashed Susi Air aircraft lost contact on Saturday, said Mimika military district commander Christian Tuhuteru.

"There is a chance they have landed somewhere for an emergency," Tuhuteru said of the missing Bell helicopter, which had five people on board.

Susi Air's small Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft crashed in Papua's Yahukimo district shortly after taking off from Wamena on Friday. It was carrying fuel and food to a remote area.

Susi Air said they had spotted the wreckage and the pilots would have had little chance of surviving.

The sprawling Indonesian archipelago relies heavily on air transport and has a poor aviation safety record. Turbulent weather conditions in Papua have caused several accidents in recent years.

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