Helicopter crash kills 1, injures 9 including 6 Chinese in Indonesia

JAKARTA - A helicopter crashed on Friday in Marowali Regency of Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, leaving one dead and nine injuried including six Chinese nationals, officials said.

"Based on a manifest, all the six passengers of the helicopters are Chinese nationals," spokesman for the transport ministry Bambang Ervan told Xinhua via telephone.

The accident killed an employee of the company operating the helicopter, PT IMIP, and wounded the pilot, co-pilot and another worker of the company, spokesman for the national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Xinhua in a text message.

After leaving a heliport of the company, the helicopter return to the base. While trying to land, it hit the two employees, killing one of them and wounding the other, said Sutopo.

The six Chinese nationals, the pilot and the co-pilot have been evacuated safely and rushed into a health clinic of PT IMIP for medical treatment before they were shifted to the General Hospital of Marowali, the spokesman said.