KOTA KINABALU – The family of the late Tun Fuad Stephens, slammed speculative news reporting, saying that Fuad’s son Johari was only a passenger and was not the one flying the plane that crashed on June 6, 1976, killing all 11 people onboard.
“Johari Stephens sitting next to the pilot in the Nomad aircraft is not a ‘revelation’ as one news agency called it. This has been known since 1976 at the time of the plane crash.
“Johari was there as a passenger. He was a 24-year-old man with every expectation of a great life ahead.
“He had been taking flying lessons but to say that he was flying the Nomad plane at the time of the crash or had taken charge of it in any way is purely speculation. To suggest otherwise is speculative, fantasy reporting aimed at pointing blame towards someone who can’t respond,” they said in a statement yesterday.
They were commenting on media reports following the release of investigation finding reports from the Australian archives and the report by the Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) Investigating Team on the crash of a Sabah Air Nomad 9M-ATZ.
They stressed that Nomad is designed to be operated by a single pilot, which should rule out the possibility that Johari was involved in handling the aircraft.
They also pointed out a clear conflict of interest when the report by GAF investors was prepared by the manufacturers of the aircraft, saying that the situation is akin to someone being the judge on a murder trial in which they are a suspect.
“We are told that including people from the aircraft manufacturing side in an investigation into a plane crash is a norm. The GAF manufactured the planes and the Australian government owned the GAF. However, this clear conflict of interest should have been watched and overseen with a very high degree of diligence and care,” they said.
They also floated the question of did the Malaysian government sought opinions from other parties other than GAF and the Australian Ministry of Transport when the two parties had a clear conflict of interest.
Australia declassified and released its report on April 26 – a 52-page record that contains Australia’s investigation report by GAF investigators.
Meanwhile, the family pointed out a documentary on the Nomad plane produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation titled Lies in the Sky, which had made clear the main interest of GAF and certain government officials that the outset in the 1970s was to make Australia a proud tech nation and make money from aircraft sales.
“Another question is: Is the report by the GAF investigating team on the crash of a Sabah Air Nomad 9M-ATZ the absolute final report available from the Australian side? The information and correspondence provided in the Australian Archive material suggest otherwise. This looks more like an internal memo and is clearly marked ‘Company Confidential’.”
The family is now seeking opinions from people who have more knowledge about the aircraft to better understand the technical information before they can evaluate and comment on the report further.
Fuad was Sabah chief minister when he died in the accident, which was dubbed the Double Six crash. – Bernama , April 30, 2023
