KLANG – The Pahang government is leaving it to the next of kin of the victims of the aircraft crash near Bandar Elmina in Shah Alam to decide on the funeral arrangements.
Pahang Speaker Datuk Seri Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin said this was a personal matter and also the right of the victims’ families.
“For the state government, it is up to the families to decide on the burial. It does not necessarily have to be a common grave; it is up to the families and we have to respect that,” he said when met at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) forensics department here today.
Yesterday, the media reported that the remains of the victims will likely be buried in a common grave if the next of kin agree.
The authorities informed the next of kin of this during a short briefing at the forensic department.
Sharkar said the state government would focus on other matters to expedite and facilitate the funeral process.
The Thursday afternoon crash killed 10 people – all eight onboard the Beechcraft Model 390 (Premier 1) aircraft and an e-hailing driver and a p-hailing rider on the ground.
Checks showed that no next of kin turned up at the tent outside HTAR’s forensics department this afternoon.
Datin Seri Maziah Samsudin, the wife of the late Pahang Local Government, Housing, Environment and Green Technology Committee chairman Datuk Seri Johari Harun, was seen at the Forensic Department at 11am today.
She also met Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan to get the latest information on her husband’s remains.
Hussein told reporters that another DNA matching result was expected this evening and the body would be handed over to the next of kin tomorrow morning. – Bernama, August 19, 2023