JAKARTA: The pilot of an Indonesian army helicopter has been rescued alive days after the aircraft crashed on Borneo island, an official said Monday, but four other crew members are still missing.
The injured airman was discovered along with the wreckage of the Bell 412 helicopter Sunday, three days after the aircraft went down as it was transporting supplies to a remote army post near the Malaysian border.
“The pilot had to be lifted with a rope because the crash location was difficult to reach,” army spokesman Sabrar Fadhilah told AFP, adding he had been taken to hospital for treatment.
But four other crew members on board at the time of the accident had not been found with the wreckage in mountainous terrain in North Kalimantan province, Fadhilah said, adding rescuers were still searching for them.
It is just the latest crash for Indonesia’s accident-prone military.
Twelve people were killed in March when a military helicopter went down in bad weather on Sulawesi in central Indonesia.
It is also not the first time that an Indonesian has been found alive days after an air accident. In October last year, a man was found alive, naked and floating in a huge volcanic lake on Sumatra island two days after the helicopter in which he was travelling crashed.
