Five killed in Navy helicopter crash

Five killed in Navy helicopter crash

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian Navy helicopter crashed on Monday
afternoon in a rice field in Deru village in Bojonegoro, killing
all five of its crew, Antara reported.

Up until late Monday, Eastern Fleet commander Comm. Djoko
Sumaryono was overseeing the retrieval of the dead Navy officers,
identified as Second Lt. Buyung, Second Lt. Daniel, Second Sgt.
Prayitno, Second Sgt. Dwi and Seaman Imam Mustofa.

Bojonegoro regency is about 100 kilometers west of the East
Java capital of Surabaya.

Spokesman for the Surabaya-based Eastern Fleet Command, Lt.
Col. Ditya Soedarsono, said the BO-type chopper was on its way to
Surabaya from Jakarta when it experienced engine trouble while
refueling at a military base in Semarang, the capital of Central
Java.

He said the crew had asked officers at Juanda naval base in
Surabaya to send technicians to Semarang to help repair the
chopper.

The crew had reported seeing its oil pressure drop.

But the helicopter took off before the technicians arrived.

"I don't know whether the chopper had been repaired or not
before leaving Semarang. But it fell around Bojonegoro at about
2:50 p.m.," Ditya told Antara.

Ditya said he was researching the cause of the crash and the
chronology of the accident.

An Army chopper crashed during a test flight in Seluan
village, Kapuas regency in January. No fatalities were resulted
from the accident.

Another military helicopter carrying five members of the
presidential security guard and five Air Force Squadron 17
personnel crashed into a paddy field in the Kertasari subdistrict
in Ciamis, West Java, in April last year, but nobody was killed.
(bby)