Patrol boat ran out of fuel, suffered communication equipment breakdown

The Royal Malaysian Navy's KD Perdana's patrol boat that went missing became adrift because it ran out of fuel and suffered communication equipment failure, thus disabling it from contacting its mother ship.

RMN chief Tan Sri Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin said these were the preliminary findings on why the boat went missing but it was still to early to arrive at conclusions as to what really happened.

"They lost contact while conducting operations to chase away encroaching foreign fishing vessels ...we are as yet unable to to detail what went wrong and have set up an inquiry board to investigate this matter.

"This includes finding out how and why the communication equipment broke down. A senior officer will head the board who will be assisted by several others to get to the bottom of this case to ensure there is no recurrence.

He was speaking at a media conference at RMN's Tanjung Gelang base here today after welcoming the stricken crew of KD Perdana's patrol boat which went missing off Tanjung Sedili, Johor on Saturday.

The nine crew members of the boat were Lt Mohd Hidir Yusof, Leading Rate (LR) Communication (KOM) Mohd Zaidi Rahim, LR PAP Mohd Rabidzi Rodzian, LR PAP Mohd Nurul Shahriran Salwi, LR KOM Mohd Akmalnizam Amdan, LR KOM Suhaimi Shamsudin, LR Faisal Iskandar, LR1 TMK Mohd Fitri Ab Malek and LR 1 TMK Zulhusni Sherhutdin.

Also present to welcome the crew were RMN'S Maritime Region 1 (MAWILLA 1) Commander Rear Admiral Datuk Mohd Redza Mohd Sany as well as their family members.

Ahmad Kamarulzaman said the KD Perdana patrol boat was found at 5.40pm yesterday, 51 hours after it was reported missing from Sedili waters.

It was located 87 nautical miles east of Tanjung Gelang by a merchant ship based in Kemaman, Terengganu, drifting 108 nautical miles from its final detected location.

"After the discovery, the MAWILLA 1 operations room sought help from a B200T aircraft belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to conduct an areal survey at the location concerned to confirm the location.

"Once the survey was done, the boat found was confirmed to from KD Perdana which had lost contact with it, and it was found together with two local fishing boats," he said.

Ahmad Kamarulzaman said the navy then deployed surface assets to the location and directed KD Perdana to bring the crew to the Tanjung Gelang Base.

"When met, all nine crew members of KD Perdana were in good condition, save for some fatigue and sun burn.

"We found all crew members had good physical endurance despite being at sea for almost 51 hours, and this is the result of the training provided," he said.

At the same time, he thanked all Malaysians for praying for the safety of the crew members and appreciated the role played by parties involved in the search and rescue operation, including the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

He said a total of 14 assets from various agencies had been deployed during the operation, including RMN vessels KD Perkasa, KD Handalan, KD Terengganu, KD Kelantan, KD Pendekar, KM Tatau, KM Pekan, as well as the Super LYNX and FENNEC aircraft.

"The navy also wishes to express gratitude to the navies of the Republic of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, who also deployed their assets as soon as the news broke out.

"This shows that we in ASEAN have close cooperation and are ready to help at any time without any bureaucracy," he said.

The boat from KD Perdana was reported to have lost contact at 1pm on Saturday while conducting a routine maritime patrol operation to expel 10 foreign fishing boats detected off the coast of the country.

Subsequently, the KD Perdana mother ship carried out a search for the boat carrying the nine crew members including an officer around the waters of Pulau Aur, Pulau Pemanggil and Pulau Sibu but after failing to find it , the navy launched the search and rescue operation.

-- BERNAMA