JAKARTA, April 17 — Two crew members and six passengers were killed when a private helicopter crashed in dense forest on Indonesia’s Borneo island, the transport ministry said today. 

The Airbus helicopter, owned by local firm Matthew Air Nusantara, lost contact with air traffic control about five minutes after takeoff in the West Kalimantan province yesterday morning.

All eight on board were men and one was a Malaysian national, civil aviation director general Lukman F. Laisa said in a statement.

“The joint search and rescue team had successfully located the crash site of the aircraft and, based on information from the field, all passengers and crew members have been confirmed dead,” he said.

Rescuers found the crash victims yesterday evening in a dense forest area with steep slopes, search and rescue agency head I Made Junetra told AFP today.

The bodies were being flown to the provincial capital of Pontianak, Made added.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.

The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal accidents in recent years.

A turboprop plane chartered by the fisheries ministry crashed into a mountain on the island of Sulawesi in January, killing all 10 people on board.

In September last year, a helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed in South Kalimantan province, killing all on board.

Four people were killed less than two weeks later when another helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga. — AFP