Double Six

Kemalangan Double Six, juga dikenali sebagai Tragedi Double Six merupakan nahas kapal terbang yang berlaku pada 6 Jun 1976 di Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Kapal terbang, yang dikendalikan oleh Sabah Air, yang datang dari Labuan telah terhempas di daerah Sembulan ketika hendak menghampiri Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kota Kinabalu. 

Nahas itu membunuh semua orang di atas kapal penerbangan, termasuk:

• Ketua Menteri Sabah,Tun Mohd Fuad Stephens
• Menteri Kerajaan Tempatan Negeri, Datuk Peter Mojuntin
• Menteri Perhubungan dan Kerja Raya, Datuk Chong Tahin Vun
• Menteri Kewangan Negeri, Datuk Salleh Sulong
• Pembantu Menteri kepada Timbalan Ketua Menteri, Darius Binion
• Setiausaha Tetap Kementerian Kewangan, Wahid Peter Andau
• Pengarah Unit Perancang Ekonomi Negeri Sabah , Dr Syed Hussein Wafa
• Setiausaha Sulit kepada Menteri Kewangan Malaysia Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Ishak Atan
• Pengawal peribadi kepada Tun Fuad, Koperal Said Mohammad
• Juruterbang, Gandhi J Nathan
• Johari Tun Fuad Stephens

 
Punca di sebalik kemalangan itu masih tidak diketahui. Sejurus selepas kemalangan, terdapat dakwaan perbuatan khianat kerana keadaan politik yang tidak menentu pada masa itu. Kerajaan Australia menghantar empat pasukan penyiasat bagi membantu mencari punca kemalangan. Terdapat juga spekulasi yang menganggap kegagalan teknikal dan lebihan muatan merupakan faktor utama yang menyebabkan kemalangan. Namun, punca sebenar bagi kemalangan itu masih belum diketahui sehingga sekarang dan laporan asal mengenai kejadian itu masih diklasifikasikan.

Pada sebelah petang berikutan kemalangan itu, Timbalan Ketua Menteri Harris Salleh telah mengangkat sumpah sebagai Ketua Menteri Sabah yang baru.

Investigation reports still secret

The crash was said to have been due to mechanical problems.

Perhaps so but then again the original investigation report should have been immediately published and the coroner should have declared the “accident” as a misadventure.

However, this report was promptly classified by the federal government (it still remains classified up to this day) and the coroner, Ansari Abdullah, returned an open verdict.

Aviation Safety Network (ASN) reported that the aircraft “stalled and crashed on approach”. However, in its narrative, ASN stated: “This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident.

“It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.”

What the ASN report did not say was that ground witnesses saw the plane “drop like a stone”.

What the experts also failed to inform you is that fixed-wing aircraft do not drop vertically but glide to its impact point unless the wings dropped off and the wings on a fixed-wing aircraft do not just drop off by themselves when the engines purportedly stalled.

Were there non-mechanical problems?

Was it a conspiracy?

Well, there’s is no way of knowing the truth until the original investigation report is declassified, but a few officials have put forth the theory that the aircraft was overloaded.

Let’s just put it this way. The N.22B variant is rated for up to one or two pilots with a maximum of 12 passengers and unless the pilot and its 10 passengers gorged themselves silly during lunch, there is no way the plane could have exceeded its weight limitations.

Was it then a problematic aircraft? Yes, the GAF-Nomad N.22B variant aircraft can be considered so.

Since its production, the Nomad has been involved in a total of 32 total hull-loss accidents, which have resulted in 76 fatalities including its chief test pilot and the assistant head designer during the design and testing stage.

Was this then a conspiracy?

It seems so considering that Fuad wanted a 20 percent oil royalty for the state, and that Fuad may have wanted to take Sabah out of the federation following in Singapore’s footsteps. There is also the third open secret that Fuad wanted to become the Malaysian prime minister at sometime in his political future.

All these spiced up the concoction.

Ground witnesses remembered hearing two distinct explosions.

Additionally, why was Fuad’s aircraft requested to circle the airfield awaiting an imaginary RMAF C-130 Hercules to take off?

(Airport logs did not show the existence of any RMAF plane on the tarmac at the time of the accident, let alone a humungous C-130.)

Sabah’s fortunes changed forever

Shouldn’t the chief minister’s flight take preference over everybody, especially in Sabah and when the chief minister himself is sitting in his own aircraft?

Were there really two explosions (one in mid-air and the other when the aircraft crashed) as indicated by witnesses of the crash?

How is Lee Kang Yu, a trusted aide and trustee to Harris (Salleh) who had fled to Hong Kong prior to his death, involved in the crash?

Why did a senior communication officer (TK Wong) living near the crash site and who was the first to arrive at the site tell everybody that the police arrived almost immediately after him and instantaneously cordoned off the entire area instead of organising search and rescue teams?

Was this perhaps an unfortunate (but fatal) coincidence?

But regardless of what actually transpired, the direction of Sabah’s fortunes were altered forever – from a sovereign state albeit under British rule to a Barisan Nasional “fixed deposit”.

wikipedia, Joseph Lakai (Free Malaysia Today)