Benedick (second right) handing over the official Double Six investigation report to Nancy while her sons Datuk Donald Mojuntin (right) and Charles Mojuntin (left) look on.
KOTA KINABALU: A day after the “Double Six” plane crash investigation report was declassified, the family of the late Datuk Peter J Mojuntin feel they are now further from the truth than before.
Mojuntin’s widow Datin Nancy Mary Mobijohn expected the report to shed new light on the tragedy that took her husband’s life as well as the lives of 10 others, including then chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens on June 6, 1976.
“I thought there would be something we never heard before, something ‘fantastic’ but it turned out to be the same old bedtime stories we’ve been hearing for 47 years.
“To me, there’s nothing new,” the 77-year-old said when met at the family’s residence in Kampung Hungab, Penampang, near here on Thursday (April 13).
She and her eldest son Datuk Donald Mojuntin spoke to reporters shortly before receiving the official report on the crash from Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick, who is also president of Upko, a Pakatan Harapan component.
Nancy seemed to have lost all hope of ever getting the closure she and her family yearned for despite calls for the Australian government to release their report on the crash.
“I don’t think so (we will ever get the answers). I think it’s just a big gimmick in the papers, just trying to make us happy, to look forward to something,” she said.
Among others, the 20-page report, which was declassified on April 6 and released on Wednesday (April 12), stated that there was no evidence of “sabotage, fire or explosion” that caused the Australian-made Nomad N-22B 9M-ATZ aircraft to crash.
It stated instead that errors made by the pilot Capt Gandhi J Nathan and the airline company could have contributed to the incident.
Prior to the declassification of the report, the only official statement on the fatal crash came on Oct 28, 1976 from then deputy transport minister Mohd Ali Sharif who said that the crash was due to pilot error and overloading.
Mohd Ali had also dismissed sabotage or any aircraft mechanical fault.
The nearly five-month investigation by the Department of Civil Aviation back then was never made public as the government classified it under the Official Secrets Act.
The Mojuntin family had hoped that the 47th anniversary of the fatal crash this year would be remembered in a better way with the release of the investigation report.
But instead, Nancy said it would be the same sombre mood, with more questions than answers.
“Whatever is done for the memorial this year, I think it will be the same.
“It’s okay, what can we do? We just try to make things better for us the family, we try to be happy. You cannot get everything in this world,” she said.
Besides Fuad, Mojuntin, who was the then local government and housing minister, and Gandhi, other souls lost in the crash were state ministers Datuk Salleh Sulong and Chong Thien Vun, state assistant minister Datuk Darius Binion, Sabah Finance Ministry permanent secretary Datuk Wahid Peter Andu, Isak Atan (private secretary to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who was then finance minister), director of the state economic planning unit Syed Hussein Wafa, Kpl Said Mohammad (bodyguard to Fuad), Fuad’s eldest son Johari.
They were flying from Labuan to the state capital when the plane went down in Sembulan here where a monument has been constructed at the crash site.
