PETALING JAYA: Sabah Air, the airline involved in the Double Six tragedy, was operating illegally and there was a squabble among two senior men, one of whom had been just removed from his position.
These were among the findings in the declassified Australian investigation into the tragedy which, by and large, tallied with that of Malaysia’s investigations.
The report released yesterday confirmed that the Australian-made plane was loaded beyond its capacity at the aft, or rear of the plane, causing the pilot to lose control before crashing.
Malaysia’s report on the disaster, released on April 12, also pointed to too much weight in the aft of the plane and errors by the pilot Nathan could have led to the tragedy.
In the Australian report, Government Aircraft Factories (GAF), the manufacturer of Nomad aircraft, said Sabah Air was operating illegally as its Operations Manual submitted to the then Civil Aviation Department (CAD) was never approved.
“Sabah Air had submitted, as required, the draft of an Operations Manual some time towards the end of 1975.
“It was never approved by CAD and in this regard, Sabah Air was operating illegally,” it revealed.
The 52-page report said Nathan had been identified as a pilot with “sub-standard ability” by then Sabah Air chief pilot M. Nadan.
Nadan was among those laid off by Fuad after he took office as chief minister for a second time in the state election six weeks prior to the tragedy.
The report said a “Capt Wahab” was then appointed as general manager of Sabah Air. It said Wahab and Nathan were former flatmates and good friends.
“Nadan reported that he had knowledge of Wahab removing his last flight report from Capt Nathan’s file,” it said.
The report disclosed that there could be truth in Nadan’s statements following a study on Nathan’s log book that found that many more flight checks had been carried out than there were flight test reports.
However, Wahab had accused Nadan of victimising Nathan.
The report also said that another pilot who had accompanied Nathan on the flight to Labuan left the plane to make space for Johari.
It said Johari then occupied the co-pilot’s seat.
The report said, however, that this pilot was "not endorsed on the Nomad and was not involved in its operation apart from brief periods in straight and level flight in the cruise when he was permitted to handle the controls".
“The 10th passenger was the son of the chief minister and he was an inexperienced student pilot. Captain Nathan did not supervise the loading of the passengers – he sat in the pilot’s seat during this period,” it said.
The report said Malaysia had not immediately accepted the technical findings that the aircraft had no mechanical or body defects and sought the views of other independent sources.
The Australian report also ruled out that the aircraft flaps were defective.
The report revealed that the Sabah Air pilots simply “eyeballed” the location of baggage and proceeded for take-off if it “looked satisfactory”.
“One of the two remaining Nomad pilots in Sabah Air was interviewed both formally and informally.
“He said they did not use loading charts because they were too difficult to understand,” the report said.
The passenger seat layout was also not reflected in any available loading charts in the aircraft flight manual, the report added.
The crash killed 11 people, including Fuad, state ministers Datuk Salleh Sulong, Datuk Peter Mojuntin and Chong Thien Vun.
