HUNTING SURVIVORS

American Among Eight Missing After Helicopter Vanishes Over Dense Forests

Police, military personnel, and locals are searching a 10-square-mile area of dense forest in Indonesia.

Eight people are missing after a helicopter flying over the forests of Borneo, Indonesia, vanished. Among the missing are an American man, a Brazilian, an Indian, and five Indonesians. The Airbus BK117 D-3, owned by Eastindo Air, “lost contact” with air traffic control eight minutes after takeoff at 8:54 a.m. on Monday, according to ABC News. Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency said teams were searching for the missing from the air and on land as “ground teams conduct direct combing in hilly areas and dense forests.” A joint team of police, military personnel, local officials, residents, and two helicopters, comprising 140 people total, is searching the 10-square-mile area around the helicopter’s last known coordinates in the forests of Mantewe. “The full potential of SAR is deployed to the maximum to accelerate the discovery of helicopters and victims,” said I Putu Sudayana, head of the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Agency. The Daily Beast has reached out to Eastindo Air for comment.