Rescue mission for the missing Bell 206 helicopter starts to intensify
BY STEPHEN THEN AND SHARON LINGMIRI: Search operations in interior northern Sarawak to rescue assistant state minister Dr Judson Tagal and six others missing since last Monday has increased in intensity.
Three aircraft equipped with special high-tech satellite imaging and infrared detection systems conducted numerous sorties over Bario and Bakelalan and obtained images of several locations where more focus will be given by air and ground teams.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam said: “The US Navy's PC Orion aircraft has identified a few likely areas which they say should be looked into.
“The aircraft used infrared equipment over these areas and we (the teams on the ground and in the air) will now concentrate on the spots that they have mentioned,” he told reporters at the Miri Operations Centre before flying off to Bario again yesterday.
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ESSENTIAL ITEMS: General Operations Force personnel collecting pullovers which will be distributed to their men who are in the jungles of Bario. The area gets very cold at night. |
Aside from the PC Orion maritime patrol aircraft, two other special aircraft are in the interior now – a Sabah Air Nomad equipped with hyper-spectral imaging systems that can carry out remote sensing and a privately owned aircraft with light detection and ranging equipment.
These three aircraft were flown to Sarawak to help out in the mission to rescue Tagal, Sesco CEO Roger Wong, contractor Datuk Marcus Raja, Padawan Council chairman Lawrence Thng, Sesco northern region manager Ling Kian Ho, Sesco engineer Jason Eng and pilot Capt Shamsuddin Hassim.
The seven have been missing since Monday after the Bell 206 helicopter they were in lost contact with ground control, while en route from Bario to Bakelalan.
Apart from the spots picked by these aircrafts, aerial teams are also scouting as high as 2,438m around Sarawak’s highest peak – Mount Murud.
Aerial searches have also taken on a transboundary mode with surveillance rounds being conducted across the Sarawak-Kalimantan boundary.
Aerial and ground searches are being extended right into the Mulu National Park, Ulu Limbang division, Batu Lawi and areas where the helicopter could have possibly “landed”.
Seven days of round-the-clock effort by 16 aircraft and 1,200 people has produced no positive news.
Dr Chan said the teams were fanning out from their initial area of searches.
More intensified searches have been focused in areas northwest of Long Repun.
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