Two killed in Sumbawa chopper crash
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 09/26/2011 5:16 PM
A pilot and a co-pilot were killed when a chopper rented by PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), the local unit of US mining firm Newmont Mining Corporation, crashed from a height of about 2,500 feet into Kelimas village in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara.
The pilot was identified as Capt. Agus Khaeruddin from Bogor, West Java, while the co-pilot was Ari Palimpung from Manado, North Sulawesi.
"The evacuation team found the two bodies burned,” Sumbawa Military commander Lt. Col. Inf. A. Eko Mulyadi said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
He said that about 24 people from the Search and Rescue Agency (SAR), as well as from the Army, the police and locals, found the wreckage at about 11 a.m. on Monday.
The chopper, belonging to Airfast, had taken off from Lenangguar district in Sumbawa in good weather conditions, but the weather is thought to have turned foul during the trip to Dodo forest in Ropang district, where the Newmont mining site is situated.
The authorities lost contact with the helicopter at about 1:40 p.m. Sunday.
