KOTA KINABALU, April 12 — The family of Tun Fuad Stephens, one of the victims of the “Double Six” tragedy, said that despite the release of the much-anticipated investigative report into the accident, the true reason for the accident will not be known until the Australian authorities also release their reports.
The three remaining children of Fuad Stephens, the then chief minister on June 6, 1976, said that they were grateful for the declassification of the report, but added it still left some questions unanswered.
“Why was it given a security classification under the ISA? Why was it not released when the crash happened?” they said in a statement here.
“We wrote to the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Transport in June 2020 to ask for a copy of this report and were told that they couldn’t find a copy of the report and, even if they found it, it was classified.
“In all fairness to the people and organisations that might be negatively mentioned in the report — such as the pilot — we feel that we won’t get a complete picture of the cause of this crash unless we see all the reports from Australia.”
The statement was released by Asgari, Faridah and Fauziah Stephens.
Documents related to the GAF N-22B Nomad passenger plane, which crashed, killing all 11 onboard, including Fuad, his son Johari, three Cabinet ministers and the pilot, are being withheld by the Australian government.
The Stephens siblings said it was the right time to push Australia for the release of all these documents.
“As a family, we would also like to say that we love Australia. Our father, Tun Fuad, was the Malaysian High Commissioner in Canberra from 1967-1973. We all loved our time there. We all have fond memories of it. And we all have a great fondness for the country. Most of us and our kids have studied there,” they said.
“But it is time the Australian government provided us with all the reports on the Nomad. It’s been 47 years.”
Former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee had made similar calls in the past, saying that Australia had previously held back due to concerns over its relations with Malaysia.
The Australian National Archives stated that its “records contain technical details... which could impact on the Commonwealth’s (Australia’s) relations with the current government of a foreign country”.
It had also disclosed that “certain parts of the text have been expunged”.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had last week announced that the government would make public the report on the “Double Six” air crash after 47 years.
The report, which was released today, largely pointed to possible pilot errors and technical issues.
The ill-fated flight also killed three state ministers, an assistant minister and government officials.
Fuad was travelling from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu when the plane crashed in Sembulan here.
The lack of transparency over the reports has led to much speculation and various political conspiracies.
The full investigation report dated January 25, 1977 can be found here.
