A helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires crashed into a river as it scooped water, an official said, with two crew members rescued and one still missing.
Yesterday’s 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 Wednesday, killing three people.
Two Australian nationals had survived the 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.
Indonesia 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, Timor-Leste and Singapore.
The fires that have destroyed more than 1.9 million hectares, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas.
On Wednesday, 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.
The fires are driven in part by a strong El Nino weather phenomenon, which in Indonesia typically causes drought. — AFP
