Published on: Friday, December 17, 2004 |
JITRA: A Pilatus PC-7 aircraft of the Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) College crashed Thursday in Kepala Batas, killing a trainee pilot and his flight instructor.
Chief of Air Force, Datuk Seri Nik Ismail Nik Mohamed, said the trainee pilot was Lt. Amnart a/l Summok, 23, of Thai descent, from Kampung Baru Naka, Padang Terap, Kedah.
The flight instructor was Mej. Alias Bakar, 36, of Pekan, Pahang, he told reporters after visiting the scene of the crash.
The plane had crashed in a padi field in Kampung Titi Besi at 2.11pm, three minutes after taking off from the RMAF College.
Nik Ismail said the families of both crash victims had been conveyed the news, and expressed sadness over the mishap.
He said the bodies of both men were sent to the Alor Setar Hospital for a post mortem before they were handed to their families for burial.
Nik Ismail said the control tower received the "turn over" radio signal from the pilot before the crash.
He said a board of inquiry had been set up to investigate the cause of the crash.
Accordingly, all Pilatus PC-7 aircraft have been grounded for a week to enable an evaluation of any technical error.
He said the light aircraft was safe for training and if the RMAF chose not to use the aircraft in future it might not be due to the frequent crashes but because of other reasons such as aged aircraft and the availability of other more technologically advanced planes.
"For the time being, the RMAF has no plans to switch the Pilatus PC-7 trainer aircraft for other planes but in the long term there is a possibility that we may consider a substitute," he said.
Nik Ismail said the existing flight training route would be retained because the air space over Alor Setar was the safest.
He said the distance of the flight-training route was in the region of 100 nautical miles, almost close to the Malaysia-Thailand border.
The RMAF College commandant, Kol. Ahmad Anuar Ahmad, said the crash occurred when the aircraft was piloted by the trainee, who had clocked more than 100 flying hours. The instructor was in the rear seat.
The trainee pilot was scheduled to complete his training next February, he added.
Ahmad Anuar said the first of the bodies was removed from the aircraft at 3.45 pm and the second an hour later.
He said the training route of RMAF trainee pilots would remain unchanged though there had been four crashes of this type of aircraft in as many years.
Eleven RMAF Pilatus PC-7 aircraft had crashed before Thursday's incident. The last one was on May 27 this year in Sanglang, Kedah, in which trainee pilot Lt Mualimin Jasid, 23, was killed. Since that mishap, the RMAF had set the condition that a trainee pilot must be accompanied by an instructor pilot on flight training.- Bernama
