KLUANG: A private company will continue the maritime salvage process of the Navy's KD Pendekar vessel, says Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
The Defence Minister said the Navy will handle the appointment of the company to carry out the process on the vessel, which sank on Aug 25.
"Efforts to salvage the vessel will be handed over to a company. Normally, such operations will be carried out by private companies.
"During the incident, the Navy divers were conducting early work for the salvage process.
"This include identifying, investigating and ensure that tools and sensitive information on the vessel do not go missing," he said.
He said this in a press conference after launching the ePerkasa programme at Kem Mahkota here.
The Minister was referring to the incident on Aug 28 where a Navy diver died while recovering the wreckage of KD Pendekar.
Khaled added that a post-mortem on the vessel's wrecking is expected to be completed in about a month.
"We are still investigating the matter. The post-mortem is expected to be completed in about a month," he said.
On Aug 28, Arman San Hermansa, who served in the navy’s Diving and Mine Warfare headquarters, died while recovering the wreckage of KD Pendekar, which sank in the waters off Tanjung Penyusop, Pengerang in Kota Tinggi on Aug 25.
KD Pendekar sank after experiencing a leak believed to be caused by hitting an underwater object.
The vessel sank two nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Penyusop at 3.54pm while on an operational assignment.
