KUCHING: The search for the AS350 helicopter wreckage to find the cause for its crash is still on-going.
The search and rescue mission for the ill-fated helicopter at Batang Lupar may be officially called off after the last body was found on May 10 but the cause of the tragedy is still not known.
The cause is important to prevent such incident from happening again in the future, said Public Aviation Department director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.
“The search and recovery mission will be led by Department of Civil Aviation together with Air Accident Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Transport, and aided by agencies like Bomba, Civil Defence Department, Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency, Marine Police, Sarawak Rivers Board and others,” he said through a press statement.
He said DCA will update their mission status from time to time.
The May 5 helicopter crash took the lives of six persons including two MPs. One of the MPs who perished in the crash was Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Datuk Noriah Kasnon, who was also Sungai Besar MP.
The other was Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Wan Mohammad Khairil Anuar Wan Ahmad.
The rest killed on that flight were Noriah’s husband Asmini Abdullah, her ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Dr Sundaran Annamalai,
her bodyguard Ahmad Sobri Harun and pilot Capt Rudolf Rex Ragas.