My condolences to the families of the 6 crew members of the Nuri helicopter who died in the crash near Genting Sempah last Friday (July 13).
I don’t have the expertise to determine if it is still safe to use the Nuri helicopters that has been in service since 1968. The fact that over 70 lives are claimed all these years in numerous Nuri’s crashes should convince most people not to board on one of these helicopters.
Our soldiers have no options though. One of the deceased members, Captain Nor Azlan Termuzi, had voiced his concerns about flying with Nuri, fearing the safety of the aging helicopters. [LKS]
Deputy Prime Minister (and Defense Minister) Najib Tun Razak still remain defensive on the reliability of the Nuris. Quoted from TheStar…
“The Nuris have been properly maintained and are in good condition. We have no option but to use the Nuri as the main mode of air transport for the Defence Ministry,” he said.
The irony thing is that we have money to buy some useless submarines but we don’t have funding to buy some new air transport. What should happen to convince our Defence Ministry to replace the old copters?
Update - The cabinet has agreed to replace the fleet of ageing Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Nuri helicopters which has been in service since 1968. [Bernama]
Despite the tragedy, I think LKS is looking at the wrong issue. The details are in my blog
I see your point; the maintenance and upgrade procedure of the copters should be questioned instead.
The cabinet has agreed on replacing the old copters, but it would take another 2-3 years to complete the switch. The pilots and crews still need to rely on these copters for some time… we must learn from this (and previous) accident to prevent another tragedy.
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