American mission pilot Neil Roesler in Indonesia’s remote eastern Papua province, an evangelical news agency reported Saturday, September 25.
The Germany based IDEA news agency said the cause of Monday’s crash "was still unkown".
Earlier news reports said that the Bell helicopter owned by the Swiss evangelical Helimission went down during a storm in the mountainous Soba-Ninia district
The helicopter was last heard from at 4:15 pm (0915 GMT) Monday, about 15 minutes before it was due to land in Wamena town, Jonathan Raney, of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) told reporters.
MAF and other missionary agencies and Freeport Indonesia mining firm’s Airfast, began a search at first light Tuesday and recovered the body just after noon, the French News Agency (AFP) quoted him as saying.
MOUNTAIN PASS
They spotted the downed chopper near Soba village in a mountain pass leading to the Wamena Valley, Raney said, adding he had no details on the pilot’s mission or the cause of the crash, AFP reported.
Idea said Roesler was the only passenger on board. He leaves behind his wife Sandy and their two young children, who are two years and eight months old, IDEA added.
It was not immediately clear what funeral arrangements had been made, after his body was reportedly flown to Wamena, about 3,300 kilometers (2,050 miles) east of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
Much of Papua province is covered by vast tropical forests. There are few roads and air travel is common, news reports said. (With author Stefan J. Bos)
