A 30-year-old military helicopter crashed in at the Air Force's Atang Sendjaja air base in Bogor, just south of Jakarta on Friday (June, 12 2009), killing four and injuring three. It was the country's second deadly air force accident this week. Rear Marshall Imam Sufaat, Chief of Operation Command at Atang Sendjaja airbase, said the crash occurred shortly after Friday prayers and during a test flight on Atang Sendjaja airbase’s runway. “It was caused by a malfunction in the helicopter’s automatic pilot system, which our technician was repairing and testing before the crash,” he told reporters at the Atang Sendjaja Hospital, Bogor, where crash victims were being treated. The Puma H-3306 helicopter was carrying seven officers when it went down near the Atang Sanjaya military airstrip near Bogor, West Java, air force operations commander Imam Supaat told local media. He said the helicopter was made in France in 1978. Two people died instantly and two died in the hospital, while three others were receiving treatment, said a hospital official, Eko, who used only one name as is customary in Indonesia. Indonesia's underfunded air force has been hit by a series of accidents in recent years, focusing attention on its poor safety record. On Monday, another helicopter crash in West Java killed three and last month a C-130 Hercules plane accident in East Java killed more than 100 soldiers and civilians, including villagers on the ground. Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has said there is not enough money in the budget to properly maintain the military's aging fleet or to train personnel.
Author: Agencies, The Jakarta Post with a little modified Indonesia Today
