Australians join massive search for missing chopper

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Two Australian experts have joined a search for seven people who went missing after their helicopter was feared to have crashed in the jungles of Borneo a week ago, officials said today.

Will Stein and Peter Newmen, infra-red experts, arrived on Monday in Bario, a remote village in eastern Sarawak state, as authorities intensify their search.

"Our mission is very definite. We have to find them very soon," Sylvester Entri, state assistant minister for water supply, who is helping in the search, was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Lost contact

Despite there being no sign of the missing helicopter, authorities have intensifed the ground search.

The helicopter lost contact with air traffic control shortly after noon on July 12 in the Sarawak highlands.

It was carrying five government officials, including an assistant minister of eastern Sarawak state, and Sarawak Electricity Supply Corp chief executive officer Roger Wong Hwa Puang and a pilot.

George Tan, deputy Sarawak chief minister said four areas in the interior jungles of northern Sarawak have been identified as likely places where the helicopter could have landed or crashed.



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