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Ahmad Shabery was to have boarded missing copter
Published:  May 6, 2016 6:35 AM
Updated: May 6, 2016 6:45 AM

Agriculture Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek would have been on board the helicopter that went missing yesterday, had he not changed his plans last minute.

According to Berita Harian Online this morning, Ahmad Shabery said he was asked to board another craft to join Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang instead.

Jabu asked the minister to attend an event at Bukit Saban with him before returning to Kuching.

Meanwhile the helicopter that disappeared left for Spaoh to pick up Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Noriah Kasnon and several others, minus Ahmad Shabery.

“At that time it was raining heavily and after it stopped, (Jabu) boarded the helicopter to Bukit Saban, Betong,” he was reported saying.

“Not long after we took off, the weather conditions worsened again, causing our helicopter to experience turbulence several times,” he told the Malay daily.

Apart from Noriah, who is also Sungai Besar MP, five others are believed to be on board the missing helicopter.

The other passengers are Kuala Kangsar MP Wan Mohammad Khairil Anuar Wan Ahmad, Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry secretary-general Sundaran Annamalai, Noriah's husband Asmuni Abdullah, and bodyguard Ahmad Sobri.

The helicopter was piloted by Capt Rudolf Rex Raga.

News of the disappearance of the helicopter carrying the VIPs broke as election fever heats up in Sarawak, which is on its last days of campaigning ahead of polls tomorrow.

A search and rescue operation has been mounted.

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