Indonesian military plane crashes on Borneo island, killing 4

Indonesian military plane crashes, killing 4

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A small Indonesian military plane crashed on Borneo on Monday with nine passengers and crew aboard, killing four, the national search and rescue agency said.

The Nomad P837 light aircraft was on a routine patrol when it lost contact with air traffic control at around 1 p.m. local time (0600 GMT, 2 a.m. EDT), said navy spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul.

Rescuers arrived at the scene and evacuated the survivors to a small island off the eastern coast of Borneo for treatment at a local hospital, said Anggit, a spokesman at the rescue agency, who like many Indonesians, uses a single name. There was no immediate word on the extent of their injuries.

Witnesses said the plane was found upside-down in a pond near the village of Sekatak in East Kalimantan.

Sitompul said the plane was flying between regional airports on the Indonesian half of Borneo island, which is shared with the country’s northern neighbor, Malaysia.

The Indonesian military has long complained that its fleet of aircraft are outdated and poorly maintained due to underfunding and a U.S. ban, recently lifted, on weapons sales.

The country is upgrading aviation safety regulations after commercial airline crashes in recent years killed more than 120 people, prompting a ban of Indonesian flights in EU airspace.