“Now it remains to be seen whether the statute of limitation has run out for any legal action,” said the eldest son of the late Datuk Peter J Mojuntin, one of the 11 who perished on June 6, 1976.
“How can this happen? Secondly, the Australian report stated that although the structural integrity of the aircraft was ‘assured’, they found ‘failures’ in the flying control systems during forensics done on the aircraft wreckage,” said Donald. The Australian report into the tragedy said that the pilot's"poor ability" and overloading may have caused the plane to crash.
The Australian investigation further found poor operations by Sabah Air and a failure on the Civil Aviation Department's part to completely fulfil their obligations as the local certification authority were factors contributing to the crash. “All these questions would also have cropped up if the Federal Government was transparent 46 years ago and probably would have been answered over that course of time.