By Ian McIntyre
Sunday November 16, 2008
KOTA BARU: The skeletal remains of 12 crew members of the British Royal Air Force flight KN630 who died in an air crash 58 years ago were removed from their jungle grave in Gua Musang late Friday.
The remains were exhumed on Thursday, placed in boxes and airlifted by a Nuri helicopter to the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia forensic unit here.
Authorities are hoping the remains would belong to nine British military personnel and three Malaysians who perished during the height of the communist insurgency.
Awaiting identification: Army museum officer Kapt Zuraimi Abdul Ghani carrying the skeletal remains of the crew members Saturday.
The hospital will perform DNA testing and the results are expected to be ready in a month.
Awaiting identification: Army museum officer Kapt Zuraimi Abdul Ghani carrying the skeletal remains of the crew members Saturday.
Hospital director Datuk Dr Zaidun Kamari declined further comment, saying that the Armed Forces would be releasing further information.
On Aug 25, 1950, flight KN630 took off from Changi in Singapore for Kota Baru where it picked up three Malaysians – Royal Federation of Malaya police constable Mohamad Abdul Lalil @ Jalil, civilian Yaakup Mamat and an unindentified orang asli.
Enroute on a mission to lay down smoke markers for RAF bombardier aircraft, the DC3 Dakota crashed into the steep foothills along the hilly Kuala Betis-Cameron Highlands (Perak) area.
A platoon of crack British troops reached the crash site but due to threats from communists, they hastily buried the dead in makeshift graves before retreating.
Both the British and Malaysian Governments decided to exhume the remains after relatives of British servicemen who died in the crash made an appeal.
Last month, soldiers serving under the Eighth Brigade based in Pengkalan Chepa, with the aid of orang asli trackers, found the crash and burial site.
Police Museum director and historian Supt Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Zain said police traced the next of kin of Abdul Lalil and Yaakup last month.
The highlight is a full military burial for the crew members at the Commonwealth Military burial ground in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
If the DNA results confirm blood ties, relatives of the two Malaysians will be invited to grace a series of joint Malaysia-British military burial ceremonies to honour the fallen. --- The Star News
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