Pilot identified as Hong Kong citizen.
The pilot of a helicopter that went missing in Bidor after losing contact with the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Tower (KLATCC) yesterday was found dead at the crash site, said Perak police chief Datuk Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri.
He said the body was found in the cockpit of the helicopter by members of the search and rescue (SAR) team this morning.
“A Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) helicopter found the location of the crash at about 9.30am in the Chikus Forest Reserve area. Five minutes later, the RMAF crew went down to the location and found the victim in the cockpit.
“The body was brought out from the crash site at 10.12am and brought to SMK Anderson in an ambulance and then sent to Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital, Ipoh, for post-mortem,” he told reporters at the SAR operations room at the Bidor police station, about 80 kilometres from Ipoh today.
He identified the pilot as Hong Kong citizen Tsz Kin Richard Chan, 58, whose family members had been informed of the incident.
Mohd Yusri said the wreckage of the Eurocopter aircraft, which is owned by a private company, had been handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) for further action.
Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said on Facebook this morning that search and rescue workers had found the pilot at the crash site at 8.20am when the rescue mission resumed this morning.
He had said that the pilot was being recovered to be moved to a hospital in Ipoh.
In a later Facebook posting, Wee said the pilot had succumbed to the severity of his injuries.
“Early indications had shown that the victim was alive at the time the crash site was detected.
“However, we were informed that the victim had reportedly lost consciousness while being attended to by rescuers,” he said.
The aircraft’s last known location was a forest area near Bidor.
It took off from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport at 11.37am yesterday and was supposed to have returned at 12.37pm.
Contact was lost at 12.16pm and a rescue operation was launched in southern Perak.