All army personnel onboard the Royal Malaysian Air Force Nuri helicopter which went missing last Friday have been killed in the crash.

The RMAF today said that those killed onboard were six officers and men.

"There are no survivors," Major Zulkiflee Abdul Latiff, a spokesman for the RMAF, told AFP .

Bernama reported that some bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage and flown to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for post-mortem.

It added that the next-of-kin and families of the victims have been informed of the bad news. They are waiting at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for the arrival of the bodies.

A Nuri helicopter carrying the retrieved bodies landed at about 3.45pm at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital football field where a large crowd had gathered, including the victims' families.

Zulkiflee told Bernama that rescuers were racing against time to bring out the remaining bodies from the crash site.

The wreckage is believed to have been found in a sharp slope ravine at the foot of Gunung Bunga Buah, covered with a canopy of dense forest.

Rotor blades detached

A Kuala Lumpur Hospital pathologist said that from the conditions of the bodies, the victims could have died on the same day the helicopter crashed.

A civil defence department spokesman said the chopper was found with its rotor blades detached.

The wreckage of the Nuri helicopter was found at Gunung Bunga Buah near Genting Highlands today afternoon, said a spokesperson of the Civil Defence Department.

Rescue teams found the helicopter at about 1.24pm.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said bad weather was most probably the cause for the crash.

"Preliminary report indicates that it was the bad weather which has been a major factor that contributed to the crash," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

He also expressed his condolences to the family members of the six RMAF personnel killed in the crash.

The fatalities

A large search-and-rescue effort was mounted immediately after the helicopter went missing at 9.35am on July 13.

Around 1,000 people combed the thick, hilly, jungle terrain in bad weather to find the helicopter in Malaysia's largest search and rescue operation in years.

The helicopter had just taken off from the Sungai Besi airbase on the way to the Gambang base in Pahang.

Those on board were pilot Kapt Nor Azlan Termuzi, co-pilot Kapt Nor Intan Asykeen Mohd Arof, air quartermaster Sgt Khusnizam Ariffin, Sgt Azmie Md Yassin, senior airman Saifulizam Alias and airman Muhammad Ridzuan Ahmad.