Central Halmahera. A joint search and rescue (SAR) team successfully located the Bell 429 helicopter that had lost contact on Tuesday in the dense forests of Central Halmahera in North Maluku Province.

The helicopter, owned by Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), was found crashed in the Halmahera forest on Wednesday. Tragically, there were no survivors as all three individuals on board—Captain Agus Sunaryanto, Co-pilot Captain Septian, and passenger Umar Ali— lost their lives.

"The team headed to the location to confirm that it was indeed the helicopter that had lost contact. The helicopter was found in a damaged condition with all three occupants confirmed deceased," Fahtur Rahman, the Head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in Ternate, North Maluku, told Beritasatu.com on Wednesday.

After successfully locating the helicopter, the SAR team proceeded with evacuating the three victims to Cekel Airport. They will later be transported to the Weda Regional General Hospital for identification.

"Currently, the evacuation process is ongoing from the accident site to the airport. The team is waiting for the three victims to be transported to the nearest hospital," he added.

The helicopter made radio contact at 00:47 p.m. Eastern Indonesia time as it was about to land in the Jiguru area in Central Halmahera.

After landing, the pilot mentioned plans to report again when the helicopter was leaving the area, and that was the last contact with the pilot.

At 1:15 p.m. local time, a helicopter landing officer at Cekel Airport’s Air Traffic Control in Central Weda attempted to contact the pilot following reports of the sound of an explosion from residents. Unfortunately, the radio call received no response.

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