Missing helicopter pilot found dead, cops confirm

The pilot of a helicopter that went missing in Bidor, Perak since yesterday was found dead at a crash site this morning, according to Perak police chief Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri.

Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong was earlier reported as saying the pilot was found alive and was waiting to be transported to the hospital for treatment.

Mohd Yusri told a press conference this morning that the wreckage of the privately-owned helicopter was spotted from the air by a team of Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) officers at about 9.30am today.

“At 9.35am, the RMAF crew got off their helicopter and headed to the wreckage. There, they found the pilot’s remains inside his cockpit.

“They believed the pilot died on the spot,” he said.

Mohd Yusri said the pilot has been identified as Richard Chan Tsz Kin, a 58-year-old Hong Kong citizen who worked for a private company in Malaysia.

He was flying the Eurocopter EC120B from Subang, Selangor to Ipoh, Perak when it lost radio contact with the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KLATCC) yesterday at 12.16pm.

According to the state police chief, rescuers then recovered the pilot’s body before flying it to a school field in Ipoh. From there, an ambulance took the body to the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital.

The police said a post-mortem will be conducted on the victim’s body to ascertain the cause of death.

Earlier today, Wee in a statement on Facebook claimed the pilot was found alive at the crash site at about 8.20am.

Defending this statement, he posted another update at 12.15pm saying an earlier report he received stated the pilot was indeed still alive when rescuers got to him, but succumbed to injuries while receiving treatment.

“Tragically, I have now received a report that the victim who was recovered from the helicopter crash site in Kg Kenangan, Bidor, had sadly succumbed to the severity of his injuries.

“Early indications had shown that the victim was alive at the time the crash site was detected at 8:18am. However, we were informed that the victim had reportedly lost consciousness during the rescue and was attended to by rescuers.

“Authorities including CAAM and the SAR are now awaiting confirmation from the hospital on the cause of death soon,” Wee said.

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