By Ainur Rohmah

TUBAN, Indonesia

Three people were killed and three others injured Friday when a military helicopter crashed in the Indonesian island of Java, damaging two houses near the city of Yogyakarta.

Adisucipto Air Force commander Rear Marshal Imran Baidirus was quoted by kompas.com as saying all the victims were on board the helicopter.

"In this incident three people died, one is in a critical condition, and two injured," he said after the accident in Kowang village in Sleman Regency in the afternoon.

The helicopter had been flying from Surakarta toward Yogyakarta to conduct a patrol ahead of a visit by President Joko Widodo to the area.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Anadolu Agency that the helicopter exhibited “unstable” flight before crashing to the ground.

"Entering Kowang village, the sound of the helicopter engine began to decline. Approaching the top of one of the houses near the fields, the helicopter began to have an unstable position,” he said. “It [the engine] then died and [the copter] went askew."

Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters over the last year, many of them involving air force aircraft.

In February, four people died when a military plane crashed into a house in East Java province.

The following month, a military helicopter went down during an operation in troubled Poso town in Sulawesi island, killing 13 personnel.