Bitung, N Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Four passengers of an ill-fated Nyaman Air chartered helicopter were found dead by a joint Search and Rescue team on Thursday, an official said.

The team found the helicopter wreck and four bodies in a plantation of Bener Tengker at Gunung Dua Saudara area, early Thursday morning.

According to head of the local police Adjunct Commissioner Satake Bayu Thursday that the four bodies are yet to be identified.

All the passengers were believed to work for a mining company in North Maluku, PT Nusa Halmahera Minerals.

Previously as reported, the ill-fated helicopter carrying 10 passengers have crashed in Bitung, North Sulawesi, just minutes after takeoff on Wednesday (Aug 3) night.

The local police reported that among the victims were Australians and locals.

A source from the NHM mining company said the passengers included Adrian Arid (underground maintenance dept.), Zainudin Ahmad (IT dept), Dian Rimba Rudi (exploration dept), Roy Nawawi (Kencana project dept.).

Besides Indonesians, there are also Australians namely Barry Tom Limpson (underground maintenance dept,), Roelof Roodth (underground mining dept.), Dion Rennie (underground mining dept.) and Wilson Yosua (exploration dept.).

Satake said earlier that the joint search team has returned to the lowland due to bad weather and thick fog on the crash site and still continued searching for more casualties or survivors.

(SYS/A050/F001)

Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011