REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAGELANG -- Army Chief of Staff General Budiman said the Army will continue to use Russian-made MI-17 helicopters, despite last Saturday's deadly crash of a helicopter in Malinau district, North Kalimantan.
"We will not evaluate the use of MI-17 helicopters. The helicopters remain useful for us. However, we are unlikely to use them in fragile areas," he said after the inauguration of retired senior army officers at the Military Academy here on Monday.
The Army now has 12 MI-17 helicopters, bought in 2011, he said.
"It will be a pity if they are not used, as they are still very useful," he said.
The helicopters were relatively new, he noted, saying the Army had carefully maintained them.
"If there is wrong information, however small, we will soon try to find it. We carefully maintain them, or run the risk of losing lives," he said.
Thirteen people were killed when an Army HI-17 helicopter crashed near a security post in Malinau, bordering the Malaysian state of Serawak last Saturday.
Senior Commissioner Fajar Setiawan, the head of public relations of the East Kalimantan Police Command, stated there were 19 passengers, including the pilot, Army soldiers and civilians, aboard the chopper.
Six people survived the crash, he said.
Chief of the Malinau military district, Lt Col Yamin Dano, confirmed the deaths, saying the helicopter, with six Army soldiers and 13 civilians on board, left Tarakan in North Kalimantan carrying logistics and construction materials to Lembulan post in Kampung Latang, Bahao Ulu sub-district in Malinau.
Most of the civilian passengers were villagers from Malinau, involved in building an Indonesia-Malaysia border security post, Dano noted.
TNI spokesman Rear Admiral Iskandar Sitompul said last Saturday that a power loss might have caused the crash of the Army helicopter.
He noted that the initial investigation had revealed the Russian-made chopper lost power on the way to its destination.
"While it was flying, it suddenly lost installed power, began losing height and caught fire," he stated.
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