‘Australia must reveal crash report’

KOTA KINABALU: With Malaysia declassifying the full report on Sabah’s “Double Six” crash, the Australian government should do likewise, says former chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee (pic).

He called on the Malaysian government to officially and immediately ask Canberra to release its full report on the tragedy involving the Australian-made Nomad aircraft.

Yong said the Australian National Archives had withheld publication of the report, with the official reason given as “the release of the information could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the international relations of Australia.

Another reason stated by the Australian agency is that “Malaysia has not as yet publicly released its final and full report of the investigation”, according to Yong, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president.

In a statement yesterday, he said the Australian government should take immediate steps to release its report in line with Putrajaya’s decision to make public the investigations into the June 6, 1976, crash here that killed 11 people including then chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens and three state ministers on board the Australian-made Nomad 9M-ATZ aircraft.

According to Yong, in official replies to his representative on March 14, 2012, the Australian National Archives had stated that its “records contain technical details which could impact the Commonwealth’s (Australia’s) relations with the current government of a foreign country”.

“In this case, that foreign country has to mean Malaysia and no other,” Yong said, adding that with Putrajaya’s decision, the Australian government should also publish its report in full.

He also said the Australian National Archives had disclosed that “certain parts of the text have been expunged”.

The replies indicate that 110 folios were withheld from publication. Each folio contains more than one page, he added.

“Only the release of the full reports, in both Malaysia and Australia, can bring closure to this extremely painful chapter in Sabah’s history,” he said.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government would make public the investigation report on the 1976 air crash.

Those who also perished in the disaster along with Fuad, who was on his 53rd day as chief minister, were three of his ministers, an assistant minister, his son, a bodyguard, the pilot and state officials.

Fuad, who led Sabah in the formation of Malaysia in 1963 and was Sabah’s first chief minister (1963-65), led a newly formed Parti Berjaya to defeat the Usno government led by Tun Datu Mustapha Harun in the April 1976 state election.

Fuad was on his way back to the state capital from Labuan when the plane crashed in Sembulan here as it was making its approach to land at the Kota Kinabalu airport.

The secrecy over the crash investigation report has led to widespread speculation, including many conspiracy theories.