Hello & assalamualaikum all,
I am now allowed back here and so please do not ask me why I kena buang...maybe in another forum.
For those of you who want to know more about the Tanjung Kupang crash on 4th Dec 1977 I will tell you just enough to avert another ban. The said flight was MH 653 a B732 from PEN to KUL with Babu Ganjoor as the skipper and Kamarulzaman as the F/O. On board were 5 cabin crew with 3 VIP pax, 2 datuks and the then Cuban embassador. One of the datuk was the then Malaysian Agriculture Minister was purportedly under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Agency, the other a civil servant from JKR. On approach to the old Subang airport KUL, the aircraft abandoned the landing and proceeded to SIN. Ganjoor reported an unknown hijacker demanding flight be diverted to SIN. Initially the pilots did not deem the hijacker by the Minister's bodyguard as serious and probably thought of it as a nonsensical action of a drunkard. This probably riled the hijackers and the crew's futile attempts to placate and humour them were misconstrued as extreme disrespect. Moreover Ganjor was an Indian national, and just 8 years after the racial riots in Malaysia, the Malay minister and his bodyguard were pissed that a non-Malay was in charge and trying to downplay their authoritative threat. More so a Malay boy as the copilot was listening to an non-Malay captain and trying to divert them from their objective. With the ACA investigation weighing heavily on the heads the drunkards just couldn't think right and rashly shot the F/O who they perceived as talking too much. In trying to calm himself in the extremely stressful situation, Babu asked to chew sireh ( betel nut leaves and lime ) and even offer that to the hijackers. This set the hijackers into a murderous rage ( they perceived this as an insult as only lowly Indian labourers and coolies chew such stuff ), and they shot him too. A stewardess came in to try and save the plane, but the rest was history with 100 dead, including some of my very good friends. I need to stress again the bane of malaysian society....datuks. I need a break...check in later, much later.
