Forestry ministry has new helicopters

Forestry ministry has new helicopters

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry began operating on
Tuesday its two new Bell-142 helicopters, which will be used
mainly to combat forest fires.

The ministry received the aircraft on Monday from PT Daya Jasa
Transindo Pratama, which won the tender to procure them from PT
Dirgantara Indonesia, the state-owned company which assembled the
American helicopters.

The ministry, which paid Rp 84.69 billion (US$8.9 million) for
the two helicopters, already has eight BO-105 helicopters, but
only one is operational.

Ministry secretary-general Suripto said one of the new
helicopters would be based in East Kalimantan and the other in
Riau. The aircraft also will be used for such purposes as
patrolling the forests and transporting passengers and goods.

Indonesia has been widely criticized by Singapore and Malaysia
for failing to deal with the numerous forest fires that have sent
clouds of haze over their territories during the dry season.

Suripto said between 1997 and 1998 the total forest area
damaged by fire was 7.5 million hectares.

A member of the ministry's technical staff, Safroedin Rahmat,
said the design of the Bell-412 made it ideal to combat fires,
and noted the aircraft also was used in Germany, France and
Canada for this purpose. "We don't need to modify the choppers in
order to install fire-fighting devices."

Under the procurement contract, Daya Jasa Transindo Pratama,
in cooperation with Dirgantara Indonesia, will provide
maintenance for the helicopters for the first four months of
their operation. (03)