Missing Malaysian military copter found, all 6 crew dead

toll123 SG

(Kyodo) _ A military helicopter that went missing five days ago while flying over Malaysia's thick tropical jungle has been found with all six crew who were on board dead, government officials announced Tuesday.
The official news agency Bernama quoted an air force spokesman as saying the wreckage of the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter was spotted in a deep ravine hidden in dense forest in the central state of Pahang on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak told a press conference that preliminary reports suggest bad weather was to blame for the crash.

Najib, who is also defense minister, said the difficult terrain made it hard for the search and rescue team to find the chopper that was first reported missing 10 minutes after it took off from Kuala Lumpur last Friday as it headed toward an air base in Kuantan, the Pahang state capital.

Efforts are ongoing to retrieve the bodies of the five men and one woman who were on board.

Despite the accident, Najib said there is no immediate plan to discontinue service of the air force's ageing fleet of around 20 Sikorsky helicopters, most of which are over 30 years old. ADVERTISEMENT

"I will wait for the report from the Royal Air Force before deciding," he said.

Arthas79 SG

Najib and his sycophants are morons. They have the opportunity to prevent this from happening a long time ago. Thier self-serving agendas have resulted in countless deaths. How would you feel as a pilot if the air-force has a track record of crashing helicopters and planes every few months? RIP to the pilots and sympathies to the families. Najib should be sacked for blatant incompetence. And the professionalism of the RMAF has been called into question again. But Im not complaining on that score.

frakfrakfrak SG

What a fucking hypocrite. Just write "orbi good" and be done with it.

Arthas79 SG

Actually....har...buying new helicopters will not resolve the problem. The problem is more deep seated than you would think. The maintainence is just horrid. Malaysia is not the only country to use old heli frames. Why the bad record then? The Hawk aircrafts are pretty new as well. Yet many have crashed. Where is the main problem?

I think discovering the company/ies assigned to maintain these aircrafts will reveal a lot of things. I reckon most are linked to the politicians milking the government for contracts in the first place. As such, they are likely to be poorly run; led by corrupted individuals. There is low emphasis on quality as the contracts are awarded on the basis of relationships and the skewed `bumi' policy in force there.

The chief problems are maintainece and logistics. And since they are tied to a cultural and social phenomenom, it will stay that way for a long time unfortunately.

johngage SG

I suspect that Najib does not give two hoots for the lives of these servicemen. This is after all the 18th Nuri crash, and 96 lives have already been lost. Chances are its just going to be swept under the carpet like all the rest. Make some grand sounding statements and just wait for the public to lose attention. After all, as long as he and his cronies can continue to make money, what difference does it make for him?

uaremyfayth SG

Ringgit down = more shopping power

tankfanatic SG

RIP for the air man who died...The Sea King of the RMAF were very good maintained... 18 crash in 40 years shows how rigorous the maintenance are. But old AC is an old AC..

that fracking najib should be shot for disregarding the airforce requirement for a new heli.

crusader91 SG

Isn't this good for us?