Air Force's missing helicopter still no where to be found
Air Force's missing helicopter still no where to be found
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post/Jayapura
Despite assistance from the Singapore Air Force, the search to
find an Air Force helicopter that went missing on Oct. 12 near
Jayapura in Papua, has not borne results, an official said on
Monday.
The Singapore Air Force had sent a special 29-member team, led
by Lt. Col. Anselm Morais, along with an unmanned aircraft to
assist in finding the missing helicopter, which has further added
to the long list of military aviation accidents in Indonesia.
The Singapore team, which arrived in Jayapura on Oct. 27
aboard two Hercules aircraft, searched for a week using a
sophisticated Unmanned Air Vehicle, or drone.
The aircraft was equipped with an infrared video camera and
operated from the control tower at the Sentani Air Base near
Jayapura. The drone can fly non-stop for seven hours.
"The result is nothing," the commander of Jayapura Air Force
Base, Col. Anang Murdianto, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"The teams returned to Singapore in two phases; the first
batch left on Nov. 2, and the second left on Nov. 3," he said.
He said the search would be continued independently, meaning
it would be carried out during regular training rounds in
Jayapura as well as in cooperation with related institutions
located near the area where the helicopter reportedly went
missing.
The missing helicopter was carrying two pilots and two other
crewmembers on a regular training mission when contact was lost.
The aircraft reportedly took off from Sentani military
airfield near Jayapura at 8.35 a.m. on route to Benawa hamlet
some 150 kilometers southeast of Jayapura.
Traffic control officers in Sentani lost contact with the
helicopter at 10 a.m., prompting senior Air Force officers in the
city to order a search.
The helicopter's disappearance came three months after an Air
Force aircraft went down at Jabung Hill, Malang, East Java, at
the end of July. The Bronco OV-10 was totally destroyed and both
pilot and co-pilot died in the accident.
The series of military aviation accidents has been blamed on
the age of the fleet, but Sagom Tamboen, an Air Force spokesman,
said the Twin Pack helicopter was in good shape when it set out
on the ill-fated flight.