Human error has not been ruled out as the probable cause of a helicopter crash which claimed three lives near Sebuyau in Sarawak last July, said Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha.

He said a Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) team probing the crash had also received information that bad weather could also have led the Eurocopter EC120 aircraft to plunge into the Sungai Teriso estuary near the coastal settlement located about 150km from Kuching.

“We (the investigating team) are not ruling out anything. The DCA is still working on it (the investigation),” he told reporters in Kuching today on the sidelines of the 7th Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines East Asean Growth Area Transport Ministers' Meeting.

To date, he said, the team had found that the helicopter, which belonged to a Sarawak-based private company, was not registered in Malaysia and was flying through an area which was reportedly experiencing bad weather when it crashed on July 20.

Engineer Peter Ato Mayo, 53, architect Henry Loh, 42 and a 27-year-old surveyor, Siti Khuzaimah Anuar, were killed in the crash.

The pilot, German national Rico Steiger, 35, survived.

- Bernama