KUANTAN: The Royal Malaysian Navy’s KD Perdana’s patrol boat that went missing became adrift because it ran out of fuel and suffered communication equipment failure, thus disabling it from contacting its mother ship.
RMN chief Tan Sri Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin said these were the preliminary findings on why the boat went missing but it was still too early to arrive at conclusions as to what really happened.
“They lost contact while conducting operations to chase away encroaching foreign fishing vessels … we are as yet unable to to detail what went wrong and have set up an inquiry board to investigate this matter.
“This includes finding out how and why the communication equipment broke down. A senior officer will head the board who will be assisted by several others to get to the bottom of this case to ensure there is no recurrence.
He was speaking at a media conference at RMN’s Tanjung Gelang base here yesterday after welcoming the stricken crew of KD Perdana’s patrol boat which went missing off Tanjung Sedili, Johor on Saturday.
The nine crew members of the boat were Lt Mohd Hidir Yusof, Leading Rate (LR) Communication (KOM) Mohd Zaidi Rahim, LR PAP Mohd Rabidzi Rodzian, LR PAP Mohd Nurul Shahriran Salwi, LR KOM Mohd Akmalnizam Amdan, LR KOM Suhaimi Shamsudin, LR Faisal Iskandar, LR1 TMK Mohd Fitri Ab Malek and LR 1 TMK Zulhusni Sherhutdin.
Also present to welcome the crew were RMN’S Maritime Region 1 (MAWILLA 1) Commander Rear Admiral Datuk Mohd Redza Mohd Sany as well as their family members.
Ahmad Kamarulzaman said the KD Perdana patrol boat was found at 5.40pm on Monday, 51 hours after it was reported missing from Sedili waters.
It was located 87 nautical miles east of Tanjung Gelang by a merchant ship based in Kemaman, Terengganu, drifting 108 nautical miles from its final detected location.
“After the discovery, the MAWILLA 1 operations room sought help from a B200T aircraft belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to conduct an areal survey at the location concerned to confirm the location. — Bernama