Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain speaks to the press during the press conference with National Security Council at Komtar in George Town August 30, 2021. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
SEBERANG PERAI, Nov 18 — The police have classified the death of a pilot in the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Hawk 108 aircraft crash at the Butterworth air base as a case of sudden death (SDR).
Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said they will only investigate the case through the SDR angle.
“We will investigate the incident as a SDR while other aspects of the investigations will be handled by the Armed Forces,” he told reporters after launching the Seberang Prai Tengah district police headquarters here this morning.
He was commenting on the Hawk 108 crash at the RMAF Butterworth air base at about 10.07pm on Tuesday night, where one pilot was killed and another injured.
Mohd Shuhaily later also released a statement to confirm that the police was alerted of the crash at about 11.35pm that night.
He said the Butterworth RMAF lodged a police report at about 4.39am yesterday.
“Our initial investigations revealed that the two pilots were conducting night training at the Butterworth air base that lasted an hour,” he said.
He said the aircraft reportedly crashed at about 10.07pm inside the air base which led to an explosion.
“Both pilots managed to activate the ejection seats in the incident but one of them died at the scene while the other pilot was injured and is now being treated at the Seberang Jaya Hospital,” he said.
In the incident, Captain Mohamad Affendi Bustamy was killed while Mejar Mohd Fareez Omar is reported to be in a stable condition.
Mohd Shuhaily added that a post-mortem report confirmed that Affendi’s cause of death was due to “multiple injuries consistent with air crash”.
“We have not recorded any statement from the injured pilot as he is still being treated at the hospital,” he said.
He said Affendi was buried at the Muadzam Shah Muslim cemetery in Pahang about 8.30pm yesterday.