Elmina plane crash: Pilot shared wife's number with colleague 'in case anything happened to him'

KLANG: Shahrul Kamal Roslan, the pilot of the ill-fated plane that crashed on the Guthrie Highway near Bandar Elmina, Shah Alam on Thursday (Aug 17), shared his wife's phone number with a colleague despite not doing so before.

Shahrul Kamal’s brother-in-law Syed Tahir Syed Mohamad, 39, said the deceased gave his wife's phone number to a colleague known as "Captain Halim" and asked him to contact his wife should anything happen to him.

"Before this, Shahrul Kamal never shared his wife's phone number. Captain Halim was also surprised when the deceased did it, as if maybe he (Shahrul Kamal) could feel something was going to happen.

"Captain Halim was the first person who called to tell us about the plane crash," he told reporters when met at the grounds of the Forensic Department of Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) here Friday (Aug 18).

He said his brother-in-law was a loving and jovial person who was liked by friends and family members.

Syed Tahir said Shahrul Kamal, who was nicknamed ‘comel’ (cute) by his colleagues, was also an efficient pilot.

He added that the funeral prayers would be performed at the HTAR forensic department and the remains would be buried at the Klang Gate Muslim cemetery in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Suhaila Akasha, 46, the wife of another victim, said she could sense that something bad had happened to her husband, Shaharul Amir Omar, 49, when she heard the news about the incident on the social media.

"When I heard the news, my heart couldn’t stop pounding. My instinct as a wife was strong although no one told me that my husband was on the plane," she told reporters.

Shaharul Amir, a retired Navy personnel, was an officer to Pelangai assemblyman Datuk Seri Johari Harun.

A Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) light business jet aircraft flying from Langkawi to the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang crashed at about 2.50pm Thursday, killing the six passengers, including Johari and two crew on board, and a delivery rider and a motorist on the ground. - Bernama