A helicopter operated by Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency conducts water-bombing operations to extinguish a wildfire in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia. (EPA Images pic)JAKARTA: Australia will join Indonesia's water-bombing operations to help put out fires that have been raging for months, a government agency said on Thursday, a day after a helicopter crashed during a firefighting mission, killing three people.
"Australia's New South Wales Rural Fire Service has dispatched a C-130 Hercules and a Cessna Citation aircraft to support Indonesia in firefighting operations from Nov 6 to 12," Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said in a statement.
Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Roderick Bruce Brazier, said the support includes a Large Air Tanker aircraft capable of dropping up to 15,000 litres of water per sortie, with an estimated capacity of up to six sorties per day.
