PONTIANAK, Indonesia, April 16, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Rescue crews in Indonesia searching for a missing helicopter carrying eight people on Thursday found debris suspected to be from the aircraft, officials said.

The helicopter, owned by local firm Matthew Air Nusantara, took off from the West Kalimantan province on the Borneo island on Thursday, heading to another destination in the same province, according to a local search and rescue organisation.

It was carrying two crew members and six passengers.

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said the helicopter took off at 8:34 am (0134 GMT) and lost contact about five minutes later.

An aerial search of the aircraft's last known position uncovered debris suspected to be part of the helicopter in a dense forest with rugged, hilly terrain, according Basarnas head Mohammad Syafii.

"Fragments believed to be the tail of the helicopter were spotted approximately three kilometres west of the initial point where it lost contact," he said in a statement.

I Made Junetra, the head of the local search and rescue agency, told AFP earlier that some 20 rescuers had been deployed to search for the helicopter.

He added that an Air Force helicopter was also deployed to assist with the search.

Indonesia, a vast Southeast Asian archipelago, relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands.

The country has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal accidents in recent years.

A turboprop plane chartered by the fisheries ministry fatally crashed into a mountain on the island of Sulawesi in January, killing all 10 people on board.

In September last year, a helicopter carrying six passengers and two crew members crashed shortly after taking off from South Kalimantan province, killing everybody on board.

Four people were killed less than two weeks later when another helicopter crashed in the remote Papua district of Ilaga.