Independent inquiry – whether Najib negligent in not phasing out Nuri helicopters earlier

Independent inquiry - whether Najib negligent in not phasing out Nuri helicopters earlier

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, announced yesterday that the Cabinet had decided that the Nuri helicopters be phased out within three years and that an international tender for new helicopters would be called in the next few months.

The Nuri helicopters would still be used pending the arrival of new helicopters.

He said: “They are the only aircraft available to carry out operations. We can’t stop using them.”

The air force has more than 20 Nuri helicopters aged between 30 and 40 years.

“We pray that such accidents will not happen again,” Najib said, adding that no one could guarantee such incidents would not recur.

Such an explanation is neither satisfactory nor acceptable to the public or the bereaved families of casualties of Nuri helicopter crashes, who must bear a life-long doubt whether their loved ones would still be alive if the authorities concerned had fully discharged their duties to ensure that the Nuri helicopters were fully safe and air-worthy.

When eleven RMAF lives were lost in two RMAF Nuri helicopter crashes in Sabah in March 1997, DAP had called for the most thorough inquiry into the airworthiness of all Nuri helicopters.

I had asked at the time if the Nuris were airworthy, why was there such a high rate of Nuri helicopter crashes which had already claimed some 74 lives in 14 air disasters since 1968.

There are now conflicting figures of the total number of lives lost from Nuri helicopter crashes since they were first commissioned 40 years ago in 1968 — with one report accounting for a total of 95 lives lost from Nuri crashes in the past four decades.

The Defence Ministry should release a full report of the total number of Nuri crashes in the past 40 years and the lives lost and the cause in each case.

But what is more important and pressing are two matters:

Firstly, an independent and public inquiry as to whether Najib had been negligent in not ensuring an earlier phasing out of the RMAF Nuri helicopters which would have saved the lives of the six RMAF personnel lost in Friday’s Nuri crash at Genting Sampah – as Najib had been Defence Minister since December 1999; and

Secondly, what measures are taken to ensure that there would not be another RMAF life lost because of the lack of airworthiness in the next three years before the complete phasing out of the Nuri helicopters.

31 Replies to “Independent inquiry – whether Najib negligent in not phasing out Nuri helicopters earlier”

  1. I suspect that these are maintenance issues …

    Even for the US Armed Forces, some Huey helicopters that are even older than our Nuris but they don’t seem to have so much problems with these machines …

    We should look into how we are maintaining these machines.

    Old machines doesn’t mean they are not airworthy … but badly maintained ones regardless of age are flying hazards …

  2. (They are the only aircraft available to carry out operations. We can’t stop using them.”)

    Then all cabinet Ministers should use Nuri’s on official business.

    (“We pray that such accidents will not happen again,” Najib said,)

    Yes, please use the Nuri’s on official business and we will all pray no accidents will happen?!!!

  3. To answer your question, Kit. Yes, Najib is negligent but then is he going to take responsibility.
    In this country the poor army chaps use Nuri but VVIPs use special crafts.
    Common people send their children to local schools but VVIPs send theirs overseas, even for primary education.
    Common people go to local hospitals for treatment but VVIPs go overseas even for a simple cataract or sinus operation.
    Common people buy local properties but VVIPs buy property in other countries.
    Common people use Proton/Perodua and VVIPs use foreign makes.
    Yet the common folks cannot see their hypocrisy.

  4. “We pray that such accidents will not happen again,” Najib said, adding that no one could guarantee such incidents would not recur

    That is a very irresponsible talk as a leader. How confident do we have in our military equipments in case of a war? Are our military personnel lives so cheap for the trial and error? We should stop using such kind of helicopters immediately until every piece of such equipment is being checked and certified safe by a competent agency which could be the machine manufacturer.

    Please ask Najib to travel in that kind of Nuri helicopter whenever possible in his tour duty to gain the confidence of military personnel.

  5. The money spent to buy fighter jets could have easily be used to replace 30-40 year old helicopters, if common sense prevailed.

    Do we need state-of-the-art fighter jets?

    Do we need helicopters for daily routines?

    We all know the answer.
    Mr. Defense Minister – pray tell us and the widows and the orphans out there, your reasoning!

  6. Sorry YB Kit to sidetrack a little:

    ####
    From Malaysiakini:
    Ministry bans Islamic state debate in media:

    The Internal Security Ministry has confirmed that they have given a directive to all mainstream media not to publish any news on the issue of Malaysia being an Islamic state.
    Sensitive, can cause tension

    #####

    WHY IS NAJIB NOT DETAIN UNDER THE ISA???
    for causing tension by his statement that Malaysia all along is an islamic state.

    Can bodohwi as home ministry take action against najis for causing the tension or is “umno above the law”.

    50 years is ENOUGH
    Vote For A Change
    Vote For Any Opposition
    Give Them A Chance To Change For A Better Malaysia
    Remember bn Is A Useless Grouping Of Self Serving, Corrupt, Dictator, Power Crazy, Racist, Kris waving, etc, etc type of parties.

  7. Chance to earn $$$ for some minister. I said let them continue using the NURI and CRASH……..that way we can get rid of many BRAINLESS MINISTER. WHY should the public bear the cost of the purchase again????? This is a very stupid vicious cycle. The public pay taxes. Stupid minister use the public taxed $$$ to build road. They tax us again by imposing “TOLL”.

  8. When our army depends on 30-40 years old equipment and machines to operate, then we can’t have very much confidence in their capabilities to defend the country.

    Wasn’t it not just last year or so that there was another scandal about our Armoured personnel Carriers (APCs)? That most of them were not-operational (out of service) because of the lack of spare parts and lack of maintenance and know-how?

    How come with so much money allocated for our armed forces annually in our budget and development plans that we have this “breakdown syndrome”?

    Shouldn’t our Generals, Admirals and Air Commdores be sacked for their inabilities to maintain a fully operational fighting force? What if our country was suddenly invaded by Klingons or Morons. Will our excuses count and enough to repel them?

    The Defence Minister must bear all blame for all the deaths and for the deaths to come in the next 3 years when the Nuris are still being used.

    Too many air crashes all the time. If it is not some plane or other, its some helicopter. We must be very “sway”.

    But nobody is ever blamed or held accountable. Life is cheap in Bolehland. Just another statistic.

  9. Malaysia soccer team perform badly in the current Asian Cup. The cabinet ministers get upset and the Malaysian soccer coach get the boot. But six people died from the Nuri helicopter crash and no body get the sack? No minister is upset?

  10. This is ridiculous,

    sheriff singh Says:
    “When our army depends on 30-40 years old equipment and machines to operate, then we can’t have very much confidence in their capabilities to defend the country.”

    This H-3 sea kings are still operated by the US, canada, Japan etc. The age of this helicopter is not the man reason it crashed. There A million reasons how it could crash why jump right to neglect? It could be pilot error, mechanical failure during flight etc. Machines of war never always works at optimum level. This goes even for the US. BTW when the new helicopters are bought i bet you will be ranting off how much they cost cause atm average transport helicopter cost between 40million usd upwards and we will be needing 30-40 of this so go figure why it took a damn long time to get new ones.

    sheriff singh Says:
    Wasn’t it not just last year or so that there was another scandal about our Armoured personnel Carriers (APCs)? That most of them were not-operational (out of service) because of the lack of spare parts and lack of maintenance and know-how?

    The Adnan APC had a spare part problem cause the original suppliers had problems supplying them IT was never a problem of technical know how pls dont insult the job i do to defend your sorry ass.

    sheriff singh Says:
    How come with so much money allocated for our armed forces annually in our budget and development plans that we have this “breakdown syndrome”?

    SO much money??? HAVE you considered the maintenance cost, troop supplies, our pethatic salaries? We bought migs on an off set program with palm oil…. go figure. BTW check our Little pie chart and see how much the military gets in that whole huge pie then come back and rant. Our spending is half of that of Singapore but 500% more land/sea mass to cover and secure.

    sheriff singh Says:
    Shouldn’t our Generals, Admirals and Air Commdores be sacked for their inabilities to maintain a fully operational fighting force? What if our country was suddenly invaded by Klingons or Morons. Will our excuses count and enough to repel them?

    IF it is a maintainance issue why should the generals BE included in this drama? If your company car was crashed by your worker do you fire the boss? what the hell man? Put your self in the shoes of the military should the entire military be shot down over one persons neglect (if it was neglect) If it was and accident then should he The person WHO will be your line of defence in time of war should be treated with so much disrespect? If your disagreement is with the goverment then settle it with the gov. Dont forget When shit comes to blow i am not surprised you will be the first one on out of the country.

    sheriff singh Says:
    “The Defence Minister must bear all blame for all the deaths and for the deaths to come in the next 3 years when the Nuris are still being used.”

    Too many air crashes all the time. If it is not some plane or other, its some helicopter. We must be very “sway”.

    EVERY country has crashes some form or another the past plane crashes happend during training. Pilots are pushed to their limit (BECAUSE if they dont i am sure a new rant about how slacking they are and a waste of our countries money will come up right??) US in iraq had one of the worse man made mistake when 2 helicopters crash into each other due to pilot error should bush be shot for that? WE took an oath to defend this country by putting our lives on the line so much for the public respect.

    Also even if a contract is sign today LOGICALLY it will take more than 3 years for the new helicopters to arrive this is not like buying a new car lol.

    sheriff singh Says:
    But nobody is ever blamed or held accountable. Life is cheap in Bolehland. Just another statistic.

    Yes i am a statistic and my life is cheap… I notice one thing in bolehland every one talks no one acts.

    I am sorry i am a supporter of the opposition and there are problems in our country, but to point the finger at the people who put their lives on the line every day is a disrespect to the thing you and all of us hold dearly. There ARE problems in our military, mostly its politicians getting in the way of military planners. What we want tends to be what the politicians can get.

  11. “Nuri helicopters be phased out within three years”

    How many lives will be lost in the “3” years?

    How much extra monies will the Rakyat have to pay?

    Who gets the contract? Razak again?

    Can the minister gurentees the lives of our servicemen for Nuri for the next three years?

    How many ministers dares Nuri? if not why put others in jepeody?

  12. What is this??? This is how our army has been reduced to under BN, we scarifice our soldiers unneccessarily, the Defence Minister has cheated their lifes for Abdullah’s privte jet. And so it is true our army is losing out to Singapore, what if we are under attack by our enemy, can we depends on our army to protect us? Hell no! Abdullah’s must cancel his private luxury jet! If not, it is clear that the life of a soldiers is no where near one cent as compares to millions of money theor leaders possessed. It is blood money! Malaysians pays for everything.

  13. Too many lives have been unnecessarily lost all these years through all these crashes, 18 to date, costing too many lives. Why?

    Why is it happening exceptionally often in Bolehland and not in the US of A and elsewhere even though we are using the same aircraft?

    Is it due to pilot error or lack of proper maintainance, bad weather etc in all these crashes? Why do RMAF pilots fear flying the Nuris if they are indeed a reliable aircraft and maintainance is reliable? Remember the “Flying Coffins” nickname for some of our aircraft?

    What were the findings of the previous 17 crashes? What were the causes of these crashes? Did we learn anything from them to PREVENT further crashes and loss of lives? Did the top brass ever take proper action to ensure no more mishaps or did they take a lackadaisical approach? Shouldn’t they be held accountable and perhaps dismissed instead of all being awarded all those pingats and titles when their men are constantly put at risk?

    Why buy equipment from all the funny and unreliable suppliers and put the army at jeopardy and not fully operational? We have equipment from Brazil, the Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey etc etc and we have a list of “suppliers” who are suspect? Is supplier problem a good EXCUSE for the armed forces not being operational? Wouldn’t your enemy be extremely happy you are not combat ready? The Armed Forces top brass must be held accountable if they cannot maintain an efficient chain of command and their troops not fully operational. There is simply no excuse for inefficiencies, indiscipline or incompetencies at all levels. A weak link is enough to destroy us.

    And don’t simply buy equipment just because the other party is willing to take our palm oil or willing to send one of our boys to outa space!! Plzzzzzz!!!! Do you know how much it is costing us? Does their equipment makes sense for our use?

    Yet we buy submarines at a bomb for what? And Sukhois and MiGs for show only. And wasting billions trying to build some ships in Lumut!!

    Bottom line is that our Armed Forces need to be investigated (another Royal Commission a la Police Commission?) to find out what is the state of affairs there.

    Too many innocent lives are at stake unnecessarily and our national security put at risk. The men in uniform must be willing to speak out and whistle blow if necessary for the good of the nation.

  14. It is due to the culture incalcuated by TDM – money is to be made through contracts and not through maintenance, so why bother with maintenance ?

    Someone pointed out that the Huey helicopters from the 70s are still flying (in the US) and crop dusters in the US and Europe are generally well-maintained 40 – 50 year old planes, some even bi-planes.

    No, we have a culture that has been brought up on making money through new contracts, and not on prolonging the life of our equipment. We have a culture that says that prolonging the life of our equipment does not result in funding for the political parties.

    When planes and helicopters fall from the sky, the reaction is that of glee – let’s create even more commissions from purchase of new equipment.

  15. YB LKS says:
    “Independent inquiry – whether Najib negligent in not phasing out Nuri helicopters earlier”

    Of course, he is negligent! There is no doubt about this no matter how he attempts to explain it away. That’s what visionary leadership is all about. Alas, that’s a component missing from Najib’s military headgear!

    The other question all Malaysians want to know is what happened to all the tens or hundreds of billions expended on the military budget in the last 50 years (i.e. since Independence)? Or the last 30-40 years since the first purchase of those Nuris?

    OK, Najib will say they don’t keep records for so long. Or, that’s OSA again. why, they don’t even have the correct (conflicting) figures of the total number of lives lost from Nuri helicopter crashes since they were first commissioned 40 years ago in 1968!

    Of course, granted helicopters can nose-dive for a variety of reasons. That’s nothing new. Yet our military men & Minister of Defence seem helpless to arrest the problem. And that’s also nothing new!

  16. As Defence Minister, he has failed terribly…

    1) Military equipment not up to standard, poor maintenance, shoddy workmanship, no security at sensitive military installations etc

    2) Thieves can walk into ammunitions dump and drive off with truckloads of weapons and ammunition…few years back, remember

    3) Special forces don’t account for ammunition, explosives taken out of store

    4) Senior defence officiala in possession of bags of jewellery and cash. Remember the landslide incidence near Bukit Antarabagsa where a general or colonel’s house was destroyed by landslide. Maninstream media reported bags of jewellery and cash was found.That was why military personnel cordoned off the area and NOT the rescue personnel. Something to hide?!!!

    Is it any wonder the NUri’s crash?

  17. DPM, if you are so screwed up in running the Ministry of Defence, please don’t try to run the whole country, do Malaysians a favour. Please call it a day [deleted]!

  18. No one is to be blamed as long as UMNO decided.
    They are cashing in on some many projects and trade arrangement.
    International businesses opportunities that are very rewarding.

    Those that served the army are training to die for the country and safe guard the government at all times. At their own cost even when they are to be killed.

  19. Najib says we can only pray that it will not happen again. Yea, pray 5 times , 10 times , 100 times also the same.

    While the nation prays, the leaders are getting away with grafts and whatever scandals.

    Money all used to buy what? RM60mil jet?

  20. DPM Najib said:- We pray that it will never happen again (for the time being, carry on flying for another 3 yrs, good luck to you fellow army force. We ministers got our own private coppers, lucky not Nuri … hehehhheee).

    PM Pak Lah said:- I don’t know (I don’t care. Good luck to you country men, I am having good time travelling around the world. Complaint lah, fight lah, do lah whatever you want to do lah. Now the country is on auto pilot. Go ask Najib to pray harder, hope the country will not crash. Khairy please cover for me, makan lah whatever you want to makan, remember to tar pow for me. Country crash also never mind lah, I already got share already. Bye bye … zzz)

  21. Sir,

    I understand that pictures can be used as a single uniform symbol of meaning to address an issue.

    But as advice, may I suggest you adhere to more minimalist styles and don’t pack a picture’s real estate with too much text and use less variations in colour and fonts? Such are the prevalent art styles that have broad appeals that your images actually have an old look to them.

    And use Helvetica types.

    cheers

  22. I agree the poor maintenance job caused the tragedy. I am working as a service engineer travelling to offshore oil rig by helicopter always. In year Dec 2006 and Jan 2007, 2 super puma Helicopters crashed into the South China Sea (1 at Kuantan another at MIRI) when carriying offshore worker to offshore. 2 choppers crashed into deep sea within 2 months. All the Helicopters are maintained by MHS aviation.

    I believe most of the peoples still don’t know all these news…..!! Only those ppl working at oil rig will know more. The investigation needs not to say, i myself believe government not care… and the result will forever a mistery. I myself sometime travelling by Malaysian’s Helicopter and i not dare to sleep during the journey to work! I prepare to ditch always.

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