Why Continued Secrecy Over Double 6 Air-crash?

Kota Kinabalu:    “If the federal government has nothing to hide over the Double 6 air-crash that killed Tun Fuad Stephens and several of his Cabinet Ministers on 6th June 1976, then they should de-classify the air-crash investigations and publish the full report” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, Chairman of STAR Sabah in a press statement released in conjunction with the 39th anniversary of the air-crash.

The continued secrecy of Double 6 contrasts totally with the speedy investigations and quick release of the results of the investigations of the helicopter crash that killed Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jargis.

The handling of missing flight MH370 in March 2014, of MH17 air-crash over Ukraine in July 2014 and the recent helicopter crash are totally contrary to the handling of the disclosure of the air-crash investigations for the Double 6 tragedy.

In MH17, the Malaysian authorities even sent investigation teams to Ukraine and the Netherlands to follow up on the investigations unless they went there for an all-expenses paid holiday.

For the helicopter crash, the investigations were speedily conducted and the final results disclosed within a month of the tragic incident.

For the Double 6 tragedy, it is now on the eve of the 39th anniversary.   The full disclosure of the tragic incident is long overdue.

The continued secrecy over the investigation papers including a request by the federal government to the Australian authorities where the plane maker was from, to classify it as “top secret” to prevent its disclosure only adds to suspicions over the actual cause of the Double 6 air-crash.

Already questions were raised in 2010 when Tengku Razaleigh disclosed at a public forum in Kota Kinabalu that he had already strapped his seat belt before being pulled by Harris Salleh from the ill-fated plane with Tun Rahman Yakob, then Chief Minister of Sarawak into a second similar aircraft to go and visit a cattle farm in Pulau Banggi.

The air-crash not only resulted in the tragic loss of Tun Fuad and some of his senior cabinet Ministers but also resulted in history changing events in 1976 for which the people of Sabah are still paying today.    Eight days after the crash, Sabah “lost” all its oil and gas resources for a meagre cash payment of 5% that caused Sabahans to be the poorest in Malaysia with 40% of all the poor and in August 1976 Sabah was down-graded to be the 12th State of Malaya renamed as Malaysia and His Excellency the Governor down-graded to TYT Yang DiPertua Negeri from Yang DiPertua Negara.