KOTA KINABALU: The daughter of former Sabah chief minister Tun Mohd Fuad Stephens is making a personal plea to the Australian government to unlock all reports on the "Double Six" investigations.
A day after Malaysia made public its report on the June 6, 1976, Nomad crash that killed her father and 10 others, Faridah Stephens said that the Australian reports might bring closure to all of those who lost their loved ones in the crash.
ALSO READ: 'No sabotage' in crash, says declassified Double Six report
"In all fairness to the people and organisations that might be negatively mentioned in the crash investigation report - such as the pilot - we feel that we won’t get a complete picture of the cause of this crash unless we see all the reports from Australia.
"There are reports on the Nomad plane stashed away in the Australian Ministry of Defence, Government Aircraft Factory reports (they manufactured the plane) and the many folios in the Australian Archives which have been hidden from public view.
"We need to push for the release of all these documents," Faridah said in a statement on Thursday (April 13) on behalf of the Fuad family.
"As a family, we would also like to say that we love Australia. Our father, Tun Fuad, was the Malaysian High Commissioner in Canberra from 1967 to 1973.
ALSO READ: 'Double Six' crash report: Too many questions, not enough answers for now
“We all loved our time there. We all have fond memories of it. And we all have a great fondness for the country. Most of us and our kids have studied there," she said in appealing for Australia to make public their various reports on the crash.
"It is time the Australian government provided us with all the reports on the Nomad. It’s been 47 years," she said.
In welcoming and thanking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to declassify the Double Six crash investigations, Faridah said the family wondered why the crash report was kept under Official Secrets Act for 47 years when it could have been released immediately.
"We are grateful that this has been released. But the release of this report throws out a lot of questions," she said.
She said that in June 2020, they wrote to the Transport Ministry's Air Accident Investigation Bureau seeking for a copy of the report.
"But we were told that they couldn’t find a copy of the report and, even if they found it, it was classified," she said.
Faridah also thanked Tan Sri Harris Salleh, who succeeded her father as chief minister, for doggedly pursuing for the report to be made public through the courts.
Earlier this year, the Kota Kinabalu High Court ordered the government to declassify the Nomad crash investigation report, but the Attorney General decided to appeal against the decision.
However, Anwar last week announced that the crash report will be made public.
