If climbing Mt Kinabalu is considered challenging, just imagine the task of bringing down dead bodies among falling debris. — Photo courtesy of Search and Rescue team
KUNDASANG, Ranau: The Search and Rescue (SAR) team combing the slope of Mount Kinabalu for survivors or bodies of climbers caught in the rock fall triggered by the earthquake last Friday morning recovered five more remains of the victims yesterday.
This brought the total number of confirmed deaths in the tragedy to 16 with two climbers still listed as missing.
This was disclosed to the press by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun at a press conference at the operation centre yesterday.
Nordin (third right) briefing his men before they are airlifted to Mt Kinabalu to continue their search and rescue.
The team also found parts of two bodies that were so badly mangled by the falling rocks that it was impossible to make any positive identification.
“What the team found were body parts and until we can identify if they were of the two missing Singaporeans or part of the earlier finds, we will categorised them as still missing,” he said.
He said those confirmed dead so far were six Malaysians, seven Singaporeans, a Japanese, a China national and a Filipino while the two still listed as missing were a Singaporean teacher and her student. Amidst the gloom at the operation centre, Masidi announced a rare piece of good news that one of the climbers thought to be missing had actually gone back to Kuala Lumpur.
Mohd Khairuladzuan Abd Khalif, 39, had descended the mountain with the first group of 52 climbers but was not registered with the operation centre, Masidi said.
Nordin despatching teams to Mt Kinabalu to continue looking for remaining missing climbers.
The minister said the SAR operation would be scaled down because aside from the two listed as still missing and the 16 bodies found so far, all the climbers and guides had been accounted for.
“Until we find the two still categorized as missing, we will continue with the operation. If needed, we will stay on and do all we can until everyone has been accounted for,” the Karanaan assemblyman stressed.
Masidi said that initial investigation showed that the worse hit area was at the Via Ferrata route.
When pressed by the foreign media for confirmation of the Japanese climber’s identity, Masidi said that as a matter of policy it was better to inform the family of the deceased first.
“I understand your profession you need to outdo one another to get the latest information but your responsibility is to your editors but my responsibility is to the family. I would like to believe that I will break the news to them in a more dignified manner. I hope you understand sometimes there are things that we cannot tell you simply because it is out of respect for the next of kin,” he said.
It was a daunting task to locate those Mount Kinabalu climbers who were stranded following Friday’s earthquake. Here, search and rescue team personnel and mountain guides working together to bring down the remains to give closure to the victims’ families. – Photo courtesy of search and rescue team
Meanwhile the Bomba Chief here, Nordin Pauzi, explained that it was impossible to bring many rescuers up the mountain for the search mission because of the limited sitting capacity of the helicopters which could only carry 6-8 passengers.
“Our objective is to send rescuers in the morning to find the remaining victims. And by afternoon, we hope to be able to evacuate all of them,” Nordin told the media at Kundasang open field near its bazaar.
Nordin added that all the bodies found had been transported to various hospitals such as Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu and Ranau Hospital.
On the criticism of SAR’s effort in rescuing the victims compared to the praises sung on the mountain guides, Nordin said he understood that the people’s frustration.
“When the incident occurred, the mountain guides were with them and it was their duties to help the climbers. And while that happened, we were still all over at different camp sites.
“Before we came in, the whole evacuation process was in havoc. Only when we arrived did that the rescue process became systematic.”
On the reports that supplies and aid dropped by the helicopter fell off the cliff Nordin said the pilots tried to drop the supplies and aid as near to the rescuers as possible. Most times, around the area, there was no flat open space. Then there was also the factor of strong wind. The pilots tried their best to drop as near to the rescuers as possible.
“I believe the comments in the social media had not been very fair to us. But we are not particularly perturbed by it because our main task is to accomplish our mission,” Nordin asserted.
Since early yesterday morning, SAR has dispatched four teams in four separate trips to Mt Kinabalu.