Jeffrey (third from left) and the families of the Double Six tragedy at the memorial service on Thursday.- Bernama photo
KOTA KINABALU (June 6): Almost half a century has passed since the Double Six tragedy but many questions remain unanswered.
On the 48th anniversary of the incident at the Double Six memorial site in Sembulan here on Thursday, Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said this is despite the declassification of the flight crash report on April 12 last year.
The Deputy Chief Minister I said it is a mystery why certain parties at the time were so adamant on having the Sabah government sign off the state’s oil rights to Petronas in return for only a five percent royalty.
He questioned their motive as they had come to Sabah on June 14, 1976, just two weeks after the crash, to demand the agreement be signed, despite the whole state still mourning the losses of the 11 killed in the incident.
This, he said, also shows that the leaders in Labuan at the time were not in favor of the agreement.
“In my personal capacity, I am let down by the agreement after having seen it. It was as if we were coerced into handing over our oil rights to Petronas for only a five percent royalty.
“Not only that, but in the agreement we were asked to agree not to collect any royalties when previously we were getting 12.5 percent.
“The Double Six tragedy is a sad day for us all. What makes it even sadder is that we not only lost half of the Cabinet, but we also lost our oil and oil rights.
“And consequently, we face a situation where Sabah does not have enough sources of income to properly develop, causing the state to become the poorest in the country.
“So let us pray that the affected families can find peace and receive the necessary support and Sabah can one day regain its oil rights to remedy all these problems,” he told reporters.
Jeffrey also wondered on the two foreign investigators from the involved aircraft’s manufacturing company who had died during their probe into the crash exactly two months after the incident.
Acting chief designer David Hooper and chief test pilot Stuart Pearce from Australian-owned company Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) were killed during a GAF N24 Nomad test flight in Victoria, Australia on August 6, 1976.
The duo, whose identities were only revealed after the GAF report was declassified by the Australian government on April 26 last year, were sent to Sabah to assist in the Malaysian investigation into the crash.
“Until today, the whole thing remains a mystery, and we are still wondering what actually happened. We don’t really know the full story, only part of it.
“Everyone, especially the families of the victims, has the right to know, and we should also think of the impact on the families who have to bear with the loss of their loved ones,” said Jeffrey.
The crash involving a GAF N-22B Nomad of Sabah Air on June 6, 1976 had killed 11 people on board the plane, including then Sabah Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens, as well as then Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Peter Mojuntin, Sabah Communications and Public Works Minister Datuk Chong Thien Vun, Sabah Finance Minister Datuk Salleh Sulong, Deputy Chief Minister’s assistant Datuk Darius Binion, Sabah Finance Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Datuk Wahid Peter Andau, Sabah Economic Planning Unit director Dr Syed Hussein Wafa, Ishak Atan, Corporal Said Mohammad, Johari Fuad Stephens, and pilot, Gandhi J. Nathan.
Then Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh subsequently took oath as Sabah’s sixth Chief Minister following the crash which had occurred in Sembulan near the Kota Kinabalu International Airport during the plane’s journey from the Labuan Airport.
The Malaysian government had declassified the tragedy’s 21-page report on April 12, 2023, in which the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department’s then chief inspector of accidents Omar Saman had concluded that the aircraft had been maintained according to schedule, the pilot was licensed and the aircraft was loaded within the prescribed weight limit, saying that there was no evidence that any pre-crash defect or malfunction of the aircraft, its engine or service was a causal factor and there was no evidence of sabotage, fire or explosion.
However, speculations from the affected families, politicians and the public linger on what had actually transpired leading up to the disaster.