Subang runway crash: Pilot says was given clearance to land

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — The pilot of a jet, which ran into a car on the tarmac of Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport and seriously injured an airport worker, has claimed that he was cleared to land on Monday morning.

In an interview with The Star, Capt Muhammad Fauwaz Zamzam, who had piloted the Bombardier Challenger 300, also said that no notice was issued for maintenance work during the incident, and that there were no lights on the tarmac besides the airport guiding lights and boundary markers.

The Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) employee, 39-year-old Mohd Ruzaimi Iskandar Ahmad Razali, died on Tuesday after sustaining critical injuries when the descending Berjaya Air private jet crashed into the maintenance vehicle that he was driving on the tarmac at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport on Monday.

“I did not see any other light on the tarmac, except for the airport guiding lights, as the plane approached the runway. If there has been work being carried out or any vehicle on the runway, normally there would be beacon lights,” Muhammad Fauzam reportedly said.

He also claimed that the airport did not any Notice to Airman (Notam) to indicate that maintenance work was being carried out on the tarmac, and that he had radioed the control tower twice.

“The first attempt was not responded and on my second call, the tower gave us the clearance to land,” he said.

According to The Star, the private jet was on a chartered flight from Jaipur, India, with eight passengers onboard.

The English daily also said that two air traffic controllers who were on duty that morning have since been suspended from work pending the investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) and Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).

Subang airport operator Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) has dismissed today tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s accusations of negligence over the fatal runway collision involving his company jet.

Berjaya Group executive chairman Tan said last night that Berjaya Air’s pilots had followed procedure and obtained the necessary clearance from the Subang air traffic control tower before landing the aircraft.