Director General Of Transportation Reveals Chronology Of Whitesky Helicopter Crash In The Halmahera Forest, North Maluku

Evacuation of victims of the Bell 429 PK-WSW Helicopter that crashed in the Halmahera Forest area, North Maluku (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Helicopter bell 429 PK-WSW reportedly lost contact in the forest area of Central Halmahera, North Maluku Province (Malut), on Tuesday 20 February. The helicopter was reportedly carrying two crew members and one field officer.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transportation who received this information immediately carried out a search related to the disappearance of Whitesky/PK-WSW helicopter contacts in the Central Halmahera area, North Maluku.

"The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transportation has received information regarding the disappearance of Whitesky/PK-WSW helicopter contacts in the Halmahera area," said Head of the International Cooperation Section for Public Relations and Public Relations of the Director General of Air Relations, Mokhammad Khusnu, Thursday, February 22.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) received information about the incident at around 04.49 UTC. The helicopter was flown by two crew members.

"At 04.49 UTC on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, two crew members and one field officer were flown on the flight," he said.

Search and rescue operations have been carried out by PK-DAM/Derazona helicopters, departing from Weda to Jiguru as the last location for Whitesky Helicopter contact.

Khusnu explained that the search was also carried out on Tuesday night at 19.00 WIT by land by using a rescue car, but had not yielded any results.

"Today, Wednesday, the location of the helicopter has been found by the Brimob Land SAR Team in Segea Village. Currently, an evacuation is being carried out, and it is informed that all victims are dead," he explained.

"The location of the crash of the helicopter does not have a cellular network, so evacuation documentation cannot be reported yet," continued Khusnu.

The Directorate General of Hubud expressed his gratitude for the cooperation and support from all parties involved in the search, discovery and evacuation of victims.