Search team recovers body believed to be of copter pilot

KUCHING: A search team today recovered what is believed to be the body of the pilot of a helicopter that went down in Sebuyau last Thursday.

Sarawak Police Commissioner Muhammad Sabtu Osman said marine police found the body at 10.15am about 5.5km from the Triso ferry terminal.

He said the police would only be able to confirm if the body was that of Filipino pilot Capt Rudolf Rex Ragas after identification and verification by forensic specialists.

Ragas was the pilot of the Eurocopter AS350 helicopter that crashed in Sebuyau on Thursday during a flight from Betong to Kuching. The remains of five others on board the same chopper have been recovered and identified.

They are Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Noriah Kasnon, her husband Asmuni Abdullah, Kuala Kangsar MP Wan Muhammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry Secretary-General Dr Sundaran Annamalai and Noriah’s bodyguard, Ahmad Sobri Harun.

Muhammad Sabtu said the body recovered today was taken to the search team’s control centre in Lingga about 11am and would be sent to the Sarawak General Hospital for a post-mortem.

He added that search operations would continue in order to recover more wreckage of the ill-fated helicopter.

– BERNAMA

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