Thekabarnews.com—It was happening in my area, sir. A helicopter has gone down in the interior wilderness of West Kalimantan. Eight of its passengers were killed, including a Malaysian resident. Read the narration carefully while drinking a cup of sugarless coffee (Koptagul), Dude!

Thursday, 16 April 2026. That morning was supposed to be just like any other. The sun slowly rose in the sky of West Kalimantan, the birds may have sung, and human routines resumed as they had in the previous days. But for some reason, the universe seems to be writing a story that is too cruel for common sense to understand.

The helicopter was an Airbus H130 with registration PK-CFX of PT Matthew Air, which took off from the PT Citra Mahkota helipad in Nanga Keruap Village, Menukung District, Melawi Regency, between 07:34 and 07:37 WIB. The destination was simple: the PT GAN helipad in Kubu Raya, carrying the operational team of the palm oil plantation. Routine. “Normal. Nothing felt special. There was no trace of anticipation.

And then five minutes later, it was all gone.

Dude, five minutes. Five minutes that usually are enough to brew some coffee or get back to pending messages suddenly become a matter of life and death. We lost contact with the helicopter. Uninterrupted, not choppy. Disappeared. It feels like something is consuming you without giving anything in return.

There were eight persons in the room. Eight lives that minutes before had been breathing, maybe still making light jokes, or maybe still thinking about the day’s work or plans to go home. Two crew members, the pilot with the controls, Capt. Marindra Wibowo, and the onboard engineer, Harun Arasyid, who kept the engine going. Then, there were six passengers from the KPN Plantation operational team: Mr. Patrick K. of Malaysia, Mr. Victor T., Mr. Charles L., Mr. Joko C., Mr. Fauzie O., and Mr. Sugito.

There were no survivors.

The crash site was located in the steep, hilly forest area of Hulu Peniti, Tapang Tingang village, Nanga Taman district, Sekadau Regency, West Kalimantan. The coordinates are 0°10’51.91″ S, 110°47’25.49″ E. Cold, hard, unfeeling. The navigation system may see numbers as mere points, but for the eight families, they are an address of unasked-for sorrow.

The helicopter was fatal. Scattering debris. About three kilometers west of the main point, its tail was found. It was as if the machine’s body had broken apart, unable to withstand the impact or protect the eight souls inside.

The forest… the forest is silent. A small wound appears in the air, halfway through the vast green expanse. The heavy trees looked uncaring, as if they had opened only a little space to show that something had fallen there. Steep terrain, slippery slopes, and tall trees. After the tragedy happened, everything felt like a test.

The joint SAR team from Basarnas, the military, and the police had to walk for hours to reach the location. With the help of a Super Puma helicopter, they penetrated the hostile forest and found nothing but an unalterable reality. The evacuation took a long time, ending only in the early hours of Friday, April 17, 2026. Eight bodies were taken to Bhayangkara Hospital, Pontianak, and Anton Soedjarwo Bhayangkara Hospital to be identified.

The identification process is merely a procedural step. The loss occurred within the first five minutes.

Behind all these events, there is a slow, ironic twist. The routine journey for operations of the palm oil plantations, often called bringing progress, turned out to be the last journey. The most painful experiences serve as a reminder of human insignificance. Weak signals, difficult access, and a harsh natural environment make the situation dire.

Those eight names are no longer a list of passengers. They are stories that end abruptly. There’s a family waiting for them to come back. In the house, there is an empty chair. There is a voice that will never again be heard.

Maybe we who read this book can just be silent for a moment. Because occasionally there are no words to explain why the world can be so cruel.

By: Rosadi Jamani, Chairman of Satupena West Kalimantan.

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