Five bodies found at crash site

BY STEPHEN THEN

CRASH SITE: The ill-fated Bell helicopter that ferried Dr Tagal and six others.

MIRI: Five bodies have been found at the Hornbill Skyways helicopter crash site at Gunung Murud, north-west of Pa Lungan, near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

The five were among the seven people on the aircraft that went missing in a remote area of Sarawak 17 days ago.

Four bodies were found in the helicopter, one in the pilot’s seat. Another body was found outside.

At press time, the fate of the other two passengers is still unknown.

The discovery was made by two police commandos who were winched down from a police helicopter to the wreckage at 5.20pm yesterday.

The Hornbill Skyways helicopter, piloted by Capt Samsudin Hassim, was taking state assistant minister Dr Judson Tagal and five others from Bario to Bakelalan on July 12 to study a possible gridline for telecommunications and power projects.

The others with him were Sarawak Electricity Supply Corp CEO Roger Wong, contractor Datuk Marcus Raja, Sesco northern Sarawak manager Ling Kian Ho, Sesco engineer Jason Eng, Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lawrence Thng and Capt Samsuddin.

In Kuching, LOURDES CHARLES reports that two commandos were winched down to the wreckage site despite adverse weather.

Internal Security and Public Order Director Comm Datuk Seri Salleh Mat Som was in one of the two Police Air Wing helicopters which flew to the area.

They were warned not to continue flying when the weather turned bad, but decided to go ahead.

Related Stories:
Crash site ‘very steep’
Several puzzles yet to be unravelled

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