Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - The search for MI 17 helicopter belonging to the Army Aviation Center by land and air has produced no result until Sunday afternoon, the tenth day since the chopper was reported to have lost contact shortly after taking off from Oksibil Airport in Pegunungan Bintang District, Papua, on June 28, 2019.
"The joint team conducted the search in Kampung Bulangkop and Kampung Tangen, but it has produced no result," Deputy Chief of Information for the Cenderawasih military command Lt. Col. Inf Dax Sianturi said here on Sunday regarding efforts by the land team to conduct te search in Kampung Bulangkop, Okaom District, Pegunungan Bintang District and Tangen Village, Airu sub District, Jayapura District..
Searching through the air has no result yet. Cloudy and thick clouds since Sunday morning hampered the search over the air.
Initially the team planned to fly two Army helicopters, one civil aviation helicopter, one Air Force CN 235 MPA aircraft to conduct the search, but finally only one aircraft could fly.
"Only one search flight can be done," Dax Sianturi said.
Heli Bell 412 with Registration Number 5185 was used to observe the Sentani-Lereh-Sentani route on Sunday. "The helicopter landed at Lereh to wait for the clearer weather while refueling," he said.
Meanwhile, two other helicopters which were on standby at Oksibil Airport, Pegunungan Bintang District, were forced not to fly because thick clouds and fog filled the Oksibil sky from morning to evening.
"Similarly, the CN 235 MPA aircraft was planned to conduct a search on the Sentani-Oksibil-Sentani route," Dax Sianturi said.
Because the weather has not been going better, according to him, air search was stopped at 3:00 p.m. local time and will resume on Monday (June 8).
"The search process by land is finished at 4:00 p.m. local time and will be continued tomorrow," he said.
As of Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time, the team was searching by air or land had not found any signs of the missing helicopter carrying 12 people while flying on June 28, 2019.
Reporter: Alfian Rumagit/Eliswan Azly
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
