JAKARTA — A helicopter battling Indonesian wildfires crashed into the Barito River in South Kalimantan province on Borneo island on Sunday, November 8, as it scooped water for a water-bombing run, an official told AFP, with two crew members rescued and one still missing. The aircraft, a Super Puma H-225 (Eurocopter EC225LP) with registration VH-HGM, belonged to a private company contracted by Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) for water-bombing operations, BNPB said.

Source: AFP via Channel NewsAsia (Nov 8)

The crash happened at about 12:15 p.m. Central Indonesia Time (WITA) near Tabatan Village, Kuripan District, Barito Kuala Regency, according to Bram Madya Temara, operations and readiness chief at the Banjarmasin Class A Search and Rescue Office. Video footage shows the firefighting helicopter being slowly dragged downward after filling its bucket from the Barito River, eventually plunging nose-first into the water. BNPB spokesman Berton Panjaitan said the helicopter appeared to lose control while manoeuvring after scooping up water with a bambi bucket — the large water container suspended beneath the aircraft by a cable.

Source: AFP via CNA (Nov 8); Basarnas Banjarmasin via Journalarta (Nov 8)

Of the three crew members aboard, two — both Australian pilots — were found alive and have received medical attention, BNPB's acting head of disaster data, information and communication, Berton SP Panjaitan, said in the agency's latest written update on Sunday. The third crew member, Indonesian national Yayan Supyansuri, who was serving as Helicopter Landing Officer (HLO), is still missing and the search is under way, he said. BNPB's update superseded earlier reports on Sunday that all three crew members had been evacuated safely; the agency's latest position is that only two have been found.

Source: BNPB statement via Jawawa (Nov 8)

The search on a wide, brown river

The Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) dispatched an 18-person rescue team at 1:10 p.m. WITA, equipped with a rigid inflatable boat, diving equipment and an Aqua Eye underwater detection device, BNPB said. The site is about 141 kilometres from the SAR office — 71 nautical miles from Basirih SAR Pier — and the team was expected to reach it at about 6:10 p.m. The search also involves the Indonesian Air Force, police, Babinsa village-level military officers and local residents, who helped pull the helicopter towards the riverbank. BNPB said its immediate priorities are searching for the missing crew member, supporting the surviving pilots' recovery and securing the helicopter wreckage on the riverbank.

Source: BNPB statement via Jawawa (Nov 8)

BNPB pledged to facilitate an official investigation by the relevant authorities to establish the precise cause of the crash and to prevent speculation, and said it would conduct a comprehensive review of aviation operation safety — covering the aircraft fleet's technical readiness, water-bombing procedures, crew airworthiness, weather conditions and the characteristics of the location. No official conclusion on the cause has been announced. Despite the crash, BNPB said its response to forest and land fires would continue, with ground operations strengthened and stricter evaluations of aviation deployments.

Source: BNPB statement via Jawawa (Nov 8)

Second firefighting helicopter crash in four days

Sunday's crash was the second in days involving an Indonesian firefighting helicopter. On Wednesday, November 4, an Indonesian Army Mi-17V5 helicopter carrying eight people crashed into waters off Seruyan Regency in Central Kalimantan while scooping seawater for a water-bombing mission in the Tanjung Puting National Park area, home to animals including critically endangered Bornean orangutans. Three soldiers were killed and five survived in that crash, according to an army statement, which said its cause was also under investigation; strong winds were reported by survivors as a factor in that earlier incident, but investigators have announced no findings for either crash, and nothing yet establishes the cause of Sunday's Barito River crash.

Source: AFP via CNA (Nov 8)

Indonesia has for months been struggling to control blazes that have burned through large swathes of the Sumatra, Borneo and Papua islands, causing choking haze that drifted to neighbouring Malaysia, East Timor and Singapore, AFP reported. Aside from ground-based firefighters, Indonesia has relied heavily on air operations to fight fires that have destroyed more than 1.9 million hectares, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas. The fires are driven in part by a strong El Niño weather phenomenon, which in Indonesia typically causes drought.

Source: AFP via Channel NewsAsia (Nov 8)

What happens next

The search for Yayan Supyansuri continues on the Barito River, with the Basarnas team due at the site by early Sunday evening local time and diving and underwater-detection equipment in use. Watch for BNPB's next crew update, the official investigation's first findings, and the aviation safety review the agency has promised — the second water-bombing crash in four days, after three soldiers died on Wednesday, will put Indonesia's whole firefighting air fleet under scrutiny even as the fires it exists to fight keep burning across Borneo, Sumatra and Papua.