In a tit for tat, former Royal Malaysian Air Force pilot Zaidi Ahmad has challenged Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to sack himself for being complacent over the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Zaidi asked the minister why no RMAF aircraft was directed to the air to investigate despite reports that the missing MAS airplane had flown over the air force’s Butterworth and Gong Kedak airbases.

Zaidi, whose dismissal from the RMAF was raised in Parliament yesterday, following the government's response that his punishment was light compared with a prison sentence, said there are billions of ringgit worth of aircraft at the two air bases but they were not despatched that fateful night last year.

“At that time the defence minister was also the acting transport minister. What is even more shameful is that the minister admitted he got to know about the loss of the aircraft through the social media.

“This means that his information came from the social media, rather than directly to him. This cannot be accepted, for as the defence minister, he should know first about security matters.

“This shows he has been complacent, careless and inefficient in the MH370 loss, that he slept on the job,” the former air force major told Malaysiakini .

Sacked for talking about indelible ink

Zaidi was officially dismissed from the RMAF on Feb 2, after the military court in January found him guilty of making a statement on the indelible ink, used in the 13th general election, without the approval of the Armed Forces Council.

Yesterday, in a written reply to Mohamad Imran Abd Hamid (PKR-Lumut), the Defence Ministry said Zaidi’s punishment was light as compared with the maximum jail sentence of two years and a dishonourable discharge.

The former airman said Hishammuddin, as the defence minister and acting transport minister, should know about the standard operating procedure air traffic controllers must adopt if there is a crisis especially, in the hijack of a commercial aircraft.

“As defence minister, Hishammuddin failed to ensure the RMAF is ready, 24 hours, to intercept to prevent the loss of MH370. His complacency and carelessness has resulted in hundreds of lives, including that of foreigners, to be lost.

“The loss of hundreds of millions of ringgit in the MH370 disaster is not like the peanuts of my case, which did not involve loss of life or the country's assets. Therefore, Hishammuddin should be sacked, rather than me,” Zaidi said.

He added that Hishammuddin should also be held responsible for the other MAS aircraft tragedy, that of MH17 that was shot down in Ukraine, since he should have ensured that commercial aircraft do not fly over such high risk zones.