Amateur historians uncover WW2 plane wreckage to document nation’s wartime history

KUALA LUMPUR: "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We are going down.” This distress call was probably the last words uttered by the pilot of a Royal Air Force (RAF) B24 Liberator KL654 aircraft, carrying a crew of eight and war supplies, that had taken off from Cocos Island, Australia, before crashing in a remote forest in Negeri Sembilan on Aug 23, 1945, during World War 2 (WW2).

But the British military bomber’s wreckage as well as certain remains of the victims were only found some 50 years later in December 1996 at Gunung Telapak Buruk, situated between Kampung Ulu Klawang, Jelebu, and Pantai, Seremban.