By Ian McIntyre and C.A. Zulkifle
Wednesday October 22, 2008
GUA MUSANG: Police are seeking the help of Malaysians to trace the next-of-kin of three citizens who perished when a British Royal Air Force (RAF) Douglas Dakota KM630 crashed in 1950.
The military aircraft, which crashed in the Kuala Betis-Cameron Highlands area, was on a mission to identify communist hideouts.
The information obtained by the police museum division has been sketchy and incomplete, hampering efforts to trace the surviving relatives of the three Malaysians, killed alongside eight British air force and army officers.
The three were Royal Federation of Malaya police constable Mohamad Abdul Lalil @ Jalil, service number 9364; an unnamed orang asli; and a civilian Yaakup Mamat, who was an officer with the Kelantan government.
Anyone with information should contact the police museum division at its training college (Pulapol) in Kuala Lumpur, said museum historian Supt Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Zain. (The contact details are tel: 03-2272 5689/ 90603, 2273 4740; fax: 03-2273 7850 and e-mail: muziumpolis@yahoo.com).
[caption id="attachment_48" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Recent find: Soldiers examining the Dakota aircraft which crashed near the Kuala Betis-Cameron Highlands area in 1950."]
[/caption]The information is being sought as part of a joint effort between Britain and Malaysia for the removal of the remains from the crash site for a full military burial and honours ceremony soon.
According to the flight plan, the aircraft took off from the RAF base in Changi, Singapore, to pick up the three Malaysians identified as military “assets” from Kota Baru before embarking on a mission to Gua Musang as a “smoke marker” for RAF aircraft bombers.
The widely deployed US-made Dakota aircraft was used for multiple missions in the fight against communists and one of them was laying down “smoke markers”, signalling spots where bombs could be dropped.
However, on that cloudy day, the aircraft crashed into the foothills killing all on board.
A foot army patrol managed to locate the wreckage hours later stuck between hard and high terrain. The patrol hastily buried the crew members as they could not remove them or the wreckage because of the difficult terrain and threat from nearby communist forces.
In a related development, the Royal Malaysian Army’s Eighth Brigade commander Brig-Jen Azizan Md Delin said a unit from the army, together with orang asli scouts, had found the wreckage and burial site.
They secured the area to ensure that the removal of the human remains could be safely conducted with the help of British forensic experts and troops.
Brig-Jen Azizan said the removal of the remains of the 11 personnel would take weeks.
There may also be plans to remove the wreckage. The army first tried to locate the wreckage in March but failed owing to the thick jungle cover but last week, it finally made a breakthrough with the help of the orang asli, Brig-Jen Azizan said.
He said the area was inaccessible by vehicles and required a two-hour hike to reach the crash site.
The Dakota aircraft was a workhorse after World War II for the RAF in Malaya which had bases in Butterworth, Penang and Singapore.
This aircraft flew over 2,500 sorties and 4,000 hours of aerial broadcasting in a psychological warfare against the communists hidden under deep jungle cover besides providing logistical and transport needs. --- The Star News
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