Navy vessel returns after helping search for ill-fated plane
Published on: Saturday, January 24, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Navy vessel KD Perak returned to base at the Sepanggar Navy Base here on Friday after taking part in the search and recovery operation for the crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea. A total of five Malaysian navy vessels, namely KD Pahang, KD Lekir, KD Lekiu, KD Kasturi and KD Perak were deployed to the crash site and managed to find 10 bodies. KD Perak Commanding Officer Cdr Noor Azizi Abdullah on Friday said the vessel boarded by 85 personnel including 15 officers departed from the Lumut Navy Base in Perak on Jan 5.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We arrived at the search and recovery site on the morning of Jan 8 and were there until Jan 14," he said. He said bad weather, with wind conditions of 30 to 40 miles per hour and waves of three to four meters high were among challenges faced during the operation which covered 720 nautical miles which is almost all the Java sea. KD Perak recovered the body of a woman about 20 nautical miles from the crash site on its first day of operation. "Given the bad weather and operations could only be carried out in daylight from 6am to 5.30pm," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Our search involved the sea surface, where we tried to find debris from the plane and human remains, we also conducted underwater search at the crash site where the distance between the aircraft tail and head is about 20 nautical miles," he added. Apart from Malaysia, naval vessels from Singapore, the United States and China also took part in assisting the Indonesian navy who led the operation.
ADVERTISEMENT
KD Perak is the fifth from the Malaysian Navy to join in the search, the first was KD Pahang which was deployed on Dec 28 last year, followed by KD Lekir, KD Lekiu and KD Kasturi. Also arriving at Sepanggar was KD Lekiu based in Lumut, Perak, headed by its Commanding Officer Cdr Zainol Ahmad."We departed to the site on Dec 29 and were there until Jan 2," said Zainol, adding that on the vessel were 149 personnel including 19 officers. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
