Arabic version: نجاة أستراليين من تحطم مروحية لإخماد الحرائق في بورنيو

According to ABC News, two Australian crew members survived after a firefighting helicopter crashed into a river in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan province on Borneo. Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, BNPB, said an Indonesian crew member was missing and that the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Video showed the aircraft collecting water from a river for water-bombing operations before it lost control, lost altitude and crashed into the water. Local residents were seen helping to pull wreckage from the river. The two Australian men were receiving medical attention, while personnel from Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, Basarnas, were heading to the scene.

The helicopter had been contracted by Indonesian authorities during what the country describes as its worst forest and land fire season in more than a decade. Flight-tracking data showed it leaving Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan’s capital, and travelling toward fire-affected areas before the crash. BNPB spokesperson Berton SP Panjaitan said the helicopter had supported disaster-response missions on routes covering Banjarmasin, Pontianak and Surabaya, and that a full report was being prepared.

The crash followed another water-bombing helicopter accident in Central Kalimantan earlier in the week, in which three Indonesian crew members were killed. Forest and land fires have burned across parts of Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua, often on peatland where embers can burn far below the ground. Environmental monitor Nusantara Atlas said more than 1.9 million hectares had burned across Indonesia up to September. Indonesia’s health ministry recorded more than 400,000 cases of acute respiratory infections as smoke haze spread, while police named more than 240 people and 20 companies as suspects over alleged deliberate or negligent fire-setting.