New crew piloted de Guzman's helicopter
theglobeandmail.com
Saturday, April 5, 1997
By John Stackhouse
The Globe and Mail
The helicopter crew that flew Bre-X Minerals Ltd. geologist Michael de Guzman to his apparent suicide were former Indonesian military officers who had not flown for the Canadian mining company until a week before the mysterious death, according to employees at the airport where Mr. de Guzman was last seen.
The air traffic control staff who last saw Mr. de Guzman alive said his helicopter's two-man crew were new to the job of flying people and supplies to Bre-X's Busang exploration camp in Indonesia. The two men were the only other people on board Mr. de Guzman's final flight.
"They were not part of the regular crew," said the airport's manager, Soegianto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "If they were regulars, we would have seen them before."
Mr. Soegianto said he had not seen the two-man crew before the day, more than two weeks ago, when Mr. de Guzman fell from a helicopter 17 minutes after leaving Samarinda, a mining centre in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on Borneo island. Two other members of the flight control staff said they saw pilot Edi Tursono and engineer Adrian Milan only once before, a week before Mr. de Guzman's death.
Indonesian Air Transport, the helicopter company, said Mr. Tursono is a retired lieutenant-colonel from the Indonesian air force. However, a source close to Bre-X said Mr. Tursono is still in the military, and moonlights for the company.
Both of the helicopter's operators have taken personal leave from the company, and could not be contacted.
The Samarinda airport staff could not confirm their flight records because their files had been taken by police, who also hold Mr. de Guzman's suicide note.
The local police chief said he was not permitted to discuss the case because "it is very sensitive. It is close to the son of our leader."
President Suharto's son Sigit Harjojudanto has been a close ally of Bre-X.
Mr. de Guzman's body was laid to rest yesterday in Manila, after a second autopsy was conducted to confirm the corpse's identity and possible cause of death. Results of the Philippine autopsy, and a prior Indonesian one, will not be known until at least next week.
(However, Philippine officials in Jakarta said Thursday that the second autopsy could not conclusively prove the body recovered is Mr. de Guzman's. The body was badly decomposed.)
Speaking at Samarinda's small airport, which is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood and handles only commuter planes and helicopters, Mr. Soegianto said he is also perplexed that he hasn't seen Rudy Vega, another Filipino geologist with Bre-X, since the day of Mr. de Guzman's death.
Shortly before the apparent suicide, Mr. Vega flew with Mr. de Guzman to Samarinda from the oil town and transit hub of Balikpapan, where they had spent the previous evening together. Mr. Vega left the flight in Samarinda, and did not come to the airport after Mr. de Guzman's death.
The pilot, Mr. Tursono, on the other hand, remained in Samarinda for six days following the death and visited the airport daily while military teams searched the jungle for Mr. de Guzman's body, the airport manager said.
A Bre-X official said Mr. Vega was at the Busang exploration camp this week, and was under some personal threat as Internet messages in the Philippines have suggested he was involved in Mr. de Guzman's death.
Mr. Vega joined Bre-X last year and was the only other passenger on the first leg of the flight. He was identified in a report by
Montreal-based Kilborn SNC-Lavalin Inc. released this week as having supervised the preparation of Busang rock samples for independent testing in Canada. Those confirmed high grades of gold at Busang.
Indonesian Air Transport operates 12 helicopters from Balikpapan, including five Alouette 3s, a six-seat craft the size of a large car. It was an Alouette that Mr. Guzman boarded.
Passengers tend to ride in the front seat, where they can enjoy a better view of the jungle and rivers below. However, Mr. de Guzman sat alone in the back during the flight.
The helicopter's owner earlier this week said Mr. de Guzman used his bags to block the flight crew's access to him and the door handle. Mr. de Guzman travelled with three bags: a large locked black bag with his personal belongings, a white bag with Bre-X material and a small plastic bag with clothing. |
