RMN helicopters involved in third rehearsal before incident - Mohamed Khaled

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the incident resulted in the death of 10 RMN members based in Lumut, Perak and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

According to him, RMN will establish an Investigation Board to identify the cause of the incident involving the RMN helicopters.

"I hope the public will not disseminate the video of the incident in respect of the sensitivity of the victims' families and not to affect the investigation process," he told the media at the Ministry of Defence's Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebration at Kementah Camp here today.

He said the identities of some victims involved have been determined as under 40 years old and the bodies have been sent to the Lumut Military Hospital for further processing.

Mohamed Khaled said there were no other rehearsal victims involved in the incident because the areas where the helicopters crashed were in a swimming pool area and an empty stadium field.

He said currently the families of the victims have been informed about the incident and the ministry will take those who are at RMAF Base in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to Lumut, Perak to assist identification.

"On behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and myself, we express our condolences to the families of the victims and our sadness over this incident during the rehearsal for the event," said Khaled, who will go to the scene of the incident to review the situation and get a full report on the incident.

RMN today confirmed that 10 of its members died in an incident at 9.32 this morning involving seven crew of the Maritime Operations Helicopter (HOM-AW139) and three RMN Fennec crew.

-- BERNAMA