Eight people have died after a helicopter crashed on Borneo Island, Indonesian officials confirmed on Friday.

The Airbus H130, operated by PT Matthew Air Nusantara, lost contact on Thursday, just five minutes after departing from the Melawi district in West Kalimantan province.

It was en route to another palm oil plantation in the Kubu Raya district.

Search teams later located the wreckage and recovered the bodies of the two crew members and six passengers from dense forests in the Sekadau district.

Authorities, including the National Search and Rescue Agency and the Transportation Ministry, confirmed the fatalities, noting that one of the victims was Malaysian.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of about 270 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents, including plane and helicopter crashes and ferry sinkings.

In September 2025, eight people were killed when a helicopter crashed on Borneo Island at a site so remote it took rescue crews more than two days to find the wreckage.

The Airbus BK117 D-3, owned by Eastindo Air, lost contact with air traffic control eight minutes after departing from the airport in Kotabaru district in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan province. The aircraft was on its way to Palangkaraya City in Central Kalimantan Province.

More than 200 personnel from a joint team, including police, military, local agencies, residents and volunteers, were sent by land and air to comb a 27-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) stretch of forest in Mantewe, Tanahbumbu district.