Heli Lost In Mentewe South Kalimantan, SAR Team Builds 3rd Command Post For Land Combs

The SAR team coordinated at Command Post 3 Emil Baru Village in a search operation on the third day the helicopter lost contact in Mentewe, Tanah Bumbu, South Kalimantan, Wednesday (3/9/2025). BETWEEN

The joint SAR team from the ground element added one additional post to expand the search area for BK117 D3 helicopters that lost contact around the Mandin Damar Waterfall, Mentewe, Tanah Bumbu, South Kalimantan (Kalsel).

Antara reported that on Wednesday, September 3, the joint SAR team built a Command Post 3 in Emil Baru Village, Mentewe District, in the search for the third day today.

The SAR Command Post 3 team consists of personnel from the TNI, Polri, BPBD, and SAR for civilian volunteers, trying to develop a search for helicopters that lost contact to the border of Tanah Bumbu Regency and Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan Province (Kalsel).

Head of the Operations and Alert Section of the Banjarmasin SAR Office, Arianto, said that the Command Post 3 which was built in this field was to increase the search with coordinates at Kilometer 81 of Emil Baru Village.

Several personnel are on standby at the post and several other personnel have conducted sweeps into the forest to continue their search for the third day of the helicopter that allegedly crashed in the Mentewe forest area.

Based on local residents' narratives, there were several people who heard a big explosion around Mount Mandian Damar or the Meratus Mountains Forest which was not far from Kilometer (KM) 80 of Emil Baru Village.

According to the standard operating procedures for searching, he said, the SAR team set an emergency response status for seven days starting from missing information on Monday (1/9).

The Estindo Air BK117 D3 type helicopter lost contact while flying around Mentewe, Tanah Bumbu, South Kalimantan Province on Monday (1/9) at around 08.54 WITA.

The helicopter carried eight people, consisting of a pilot, an engineer, and six passengers, namely Capt. Haryanto, Eng Hendra, Mark Werren, Yudi Febrian, Andys Rissa Pasulu, Santha Kumar, Claudine Quito, and Iboy Irfan Rosa.

The helicopter with a flight route from Kotabaru (Kalsel) to Palangka Raya (Central Kalimantan) was previously reported by the Banjarmasin SAR Office which is estimated to have crashed around the Mandian Damar Waterfall, Mentewe District, Tanah Bumbu Regency.

The helicopter took off from Syamsir Alam Airport, Kotabaru Regency, on Monday (1/9) at around 08.46 WITA with an estimated arrival at Palangka Raya Airport at 10.15 WITA.

However, the last contact was recorded at 08.54 WITA, before the plane could no longer be contacted by AirNav from Kotabaru, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan and Palangka Raya City, and then reports of lost contact received at 12.02 WITA.