PETALING JAYA: No Notice to Airmen (Notam) was issued to advise that maintenance was being carried out on the runway at Subang Airport on Monday when an aircraft hit a work vehicle, Berjaya Air said today.
“Landing clearance was requested by the pilot and the Tower at Subang Airport gave the clearance to land,“ it said in a statement.
“There were no beacons or warning lights to alert the crew that there was the presence of maintenance workers or other obstructions on the runway.”
Berjaya Air said the aircraft had already touched down and was decelerating when it collided with the maintenance vehicle.
The flight was carried out in accordance with an approved flight plan which was submitted to the Air Traffic Control Centre (ATC) prior to its scheduled arrival at Subang Airport, it said.
The investigation of the incident is ongoing and Berjaya Air would extend its fullest assistance and cooperation to the relevant authorities and the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) which is heading the investigation, it said.
“We hope that the public will refrain from further speculating on this very unfortunate incident and allow the relevant authorities to complete their investigation,“ it said.
The airline said it is looking forward to receiving the report to be prepared by the Ministry of Transport so that this matter would have been thoroughly investigated and concluded to avoid any future occurrence of this tragedy.
It expresses its deepest condolences to the family of Mohd Ruzaimi Iskandar Ahmad Razali who was killed in the runway accident.
Berjaya Air said it did not issue a statement earlier as it did not wish to prejudice any ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities.
“However, since the incident was first reported in the press, there has been a lot of media articles and social media chat containing inaccurate facts and speculation regarding the accident,“ it said.
“As such Berjaya Air is compelled to issue this press statement to clear the air and to clarify what transpired on that fateful morning.”
At the Parliament lobby here today, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said it would take 30 days for initial reports of the incident to be completed.
“We have our own investigation unit and department. I have instructed the department to come up with the report.”
Personal statement by Tan Sri Vincent Tan
“First of all, I wish to convey my deepest condolences to the family of the late Mohd Ruzaimi Iskandar bin Ahmad Razali.
There have been many press reports and social media comments attacking Berjaya Air and its crew and me personally as if we are responsible for the accident at Subang airport on 18 March 2019. This is totally unfounded and incorrect.
Therefore, I wish to set the record straight.
Berjaya Air has already put out its own statement as to what happened and the company is cooperating with the ongoing investigation to establish the truth of the events of that morning.
As far as I am concerned, Berjaya Air and our pilots are completely not at fault in this whole matter. The pilots followed all the proper operating flight and landing procedures. They obtained the necessary clearance from the Subang tower before they landed the aircraft. In fact had the obstruction on the runway not been a small maintenance vehicle but a truck or other heavy equipment it could have resulted in a major disaster. The entire aircraft, crew and passengers could have perished in the accident.
The fault for this incident must lie with the airport authorities. They should have given adequate advance warning to the inbound aircraft that maintenance work was being carried out on the runway or close the airport altogether. No such warning was given and in my view the airport authority was negligent.
I hope this unfortunate incident will serve as a wake-up call to all our airport authorities throughout the country so that such an incident will never happen again.
As a gesture of condolence and to ease any financial hardship to the family of the late Mohd Ruzaimi, I wish to personally make a donation of RM50,000 (Ringgit Malaysia Fifty Thousand) to the widow of the deceased.”
