KUCHING: Abidin Supardi, the private secretary to Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Noriah Kasnon, was supposed to have been on board the helicopter which went missing en route from Betong to Kuching, yesterday.
He said he had boarded a helicopter with Noriah from Kuching to Betong to attend a ministry programme there with commodity entrepreneurs.
For that flight, he had taken over the spot originally slated for Kuala Kangsar Member of Parliament Datuk Wan Mohammad Khairil Anuar Wan Ahmad, who is also Malaysian Palm Oil Board chairman.
Abidin said joining Noriah onboard were her husband Asmuni Abdullah, the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Dr Sundaran Annamalai, and a personal bodyguard.
"I took over Datuk Wan's (Wan Mohammad Khairil) place because he needed to fly in earlier to monitor preparations for the event we were attending.
“When we were about to return to Kuching, he joined Datuk Noriah based on the initial schedule," said Abidin.
He noted that the weather was bad when both helicopters departed Betong.
“The weather was still bad when both the choppers took off … it was still raining,” he said.
Abidin said the helicopter he was in took off 10 minutes after the one carrying the rest had left.
“Upon arriving at Kuching about 5.15pm, we learnt that the earlier helicopter had yet to arrive. I was then briefed of the situation immediately,” he said.
Abidin was speaking to reporters at the Hornbill Skyways centre. Together with him were Women, Family and Community Development minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim and officers from the ministry.
Earlier, Sarawak police commissioner Datuk Seri Muhammad Sabtu Osman told a press conference that a multi-agency search and rescue team comprising more than 100 people would focus their search on three areas, namely Sri Aman, Simunjan and Betong.
Police were notified over the incident by the Department of Civil Aviation at 8.20pm. According to DCA reports, the helicopter disappeared from radar about 20 minutes after it departed from Betong.
It was last detected in Triso, located within the Sri Aman division.