Eight people have been killed after an Indonesian search and rescue helicopter crashed, an official said Sunday, in the country’s latest aviation accident.
The helicopter was carrying eight people including four crew when it hit a cliff in Temanggung, Central Java province, late Sunday afternoon, a senior official at the social affairs ministry told AFP.
Maj. Gen. Heronimus Guru, deputy operations chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), confirmed to the media that all eight people on board were killed.
The Basarnas chopper was on a mission to oversee the situation in Central Java, where a volcanic crater erupted at the Dieng Plateau on Sunday afternoon.
About five people were lightly injured when the Sileri crater spewed cold lava, ash and mud as high as 50 meters (164 feet) into the sky, with officials quick to deploy officers to clear the popular tourist area.
Indonesia has experienced several air disasters in the past few months and has a poor aviation track record.
In December, a military helicopter crashed in a remote area in Indonesia’s Borneo killing three people, but a few weeks later one of the passengers was found alive.
