Family of former Sabah Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens look to fellow Sabahan and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to de-classify Australian Government findings into air disaster that killed Stephens and 4 other Sabah Cabinet members -ABC silence on the matter intriguing

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Abidin who was representing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor presenting a memento to Faridah in the form of a framed picture of Stephens’ last function in Labuan, two hours before the crash happened. Inset: Penny Wong.

The Daily Express Sabah has reported:

Australia’s new Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is Sabah-born, may be the right person to finally get the Australian findings into the Double Six tragedy declassified. 

This was expressed by Faridah Stephens, daughter of the late Tun Mohd Fuad Stephens, who perished in the tragedy on June 6, 1976, with four of his key ministers.

The story is important given the personalities involved, who remain influential in Sabah,and in Malaysia (see photo above). The matter has not however received any Australian coverage, despite the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reporting the crash and the investigation that followed in 1976 (see story below) and despite the ABC's extensive reporting of Penny Wong's "balik kampung". 

TO BE READ WITH 

Double Six: Up to authorities to disclose report

IT is up to the relevant authorities whether they want to disclose the final investigation report of the 1976 Double Six Tragedy, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

“On June 6, 1976 (44 years ago), a tragedy dubbed as the ‘Double Six Tragedy’ became part of Sabah’s history when a Sabah Air-owned GAF N-22B aeroplane crashed,” he said in a written reply to a question by Nominated Assemblyman Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

The crash, he said, claimed 11 lives, including then Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens.

“It is believed that the Australian government had sent four investigation teams to help find the cause of incident.

“However, the actual cause is yet to be known until now and the report had been classified.

Therefore, it is up to the related authorities whether they want to reveal the report,” he said.

Yong had asked whether the State Government will make a request to the Federal Government to re-open the Malaysian final investigation report on the tragedy.

A probe involving the Australian GAF Nomad manufacturer and officials from the Australian Department of Transport was launched and completed some four months later, but the full report was classified under the Official Secrets Act.

Apart from Tun Fuad, the crash also took the lives of Datuk Peter Mojuntin who was then Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister, Datuk Salleh Sulong (Sabah Finance Minister), Chong Thien Vun (Sabah Works and Communication Minister), Datuk Darius Binion (Assistant Minister to Deputy Chief Minister), Datuk Wahid Peter Andu (Private Secretary to the Sabah Fin-ance Minister), Dr Syed Hussin Wafa (Director of State Economic Planning Unit), Datuk Ishak Atan (Private Secretary to Malaysian Federal Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah), Johari Stephens (Tun Fuad’s eldest son), Captain Ghandi Nathan (the pilot) and Corporal Said Mohammad (bodyguard to Tun Fuad). 

On June 22, 1976, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced the findings from the GAF investigations, which determined that the cause of the accident was due to pilot error. 

However, additional details were not released and the Australian investigation report remained classified since then.

In 2017, then Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, during question time at the State Legislative Assembly sitting, said the reports are still classified because the “Sabah Civil Aviation Department has no new information on the crash”.