Sabah will support the legal actions of the families of the “Double Six” tragedy

KOTA KINABALU, June 6 – The Sabah government will support all legal actions taken by the families of the victims of the Double Six plane crash that killed about half of the state Cabinet ministers in 1976, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan said.

He said the government understood the plight of the people who had to wait decades for a response to the plane crash that was said to have changed the course of the state.

“The families have the right to do this. We sympathize with them.”

“If they decide to take legal action, the state government will support them,” Kitingan told reporters today after attending the 48th commemoration ceremony at the Double Six Memorial.

He was asked to comment on the families’ recent statement that they are considering legal action against the federal government for its role in the crash.

Kitingan acknowledged that the investigation reports into the crash from Malaysia and Australia, released and published last year, had not dispelled the suspicions and conspiracy theories surrounding the incident and the decision to declare the documents secret.

“We will work with the federal government on this matter to alleviate the suffering of the families caused by the crash and to allow them to truly move on and close this chapter,” he said.

The families of the victims released a statement two days ago saying they would sue the government for compensation to repair and alleviate the suffering they endured over the past 50 years when the investigation report was kept secret and not published.

While the release of the Malaysian investigation report on April 12, 2023, provided some insight into the circumstances of the crash that killed 11 people, including the pilot, the reasons for the long delay in releasing the report remain unclear.

The official investigation into the Double Six crash reached the same conclusion as Malaysia’s investigation, saying that the GAF Nomad aircraft was operated illegally and that the pilot had allowed the rear of the aircraft to become overloaded.

Malaysia stated in its report that there had been no acts of sabotage or engine failure. Pathological tests on the pilot, Captain Gandhi J. Nathan, had shown that he was reasonably fit at the time of the incident and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Datuk Donald Peter Mojuntin, whose father Datuk Peter Mojuntin was the Local Government and Housing Minister at the time of the accident, said the delay in releasing the investigation report into the accident had exacerbated the trauma of the families and prevented them from moving on and overcoming the impact of this event on them.

“Ultimately, we still don’t know why the crash happened and what was so important that it had to be classified.

“We wrote letters to the Ministry of Transport, first in January and then in April, but received no response, not even an acknowledgement that they received the letter,” he said at our meeting today.