KUALA LUMPUR: A total of nine Hawk fighter jets of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) have crashed or been involved in emergency landings since 1996, including the most recent crash at the Butterworth Air Base in Penang.
The first incident in a timeline compiled by Bernama was on June 18, 1996 when a Hawk 108 crashed when conducting a training flight near the RMAF Air Base in Butterworth, Penang. There were no casualties in the incident.
This was followed by another crash on July 23, 1996 when two pilots survived after their Hawk crashed and exploded in a small ravine outside Labuan Airport.
Following this, the first fatal accident took place on Sept 10, 1998 when a Hawk 208 crashed in Kuala Betis, Gua Musang, about 200 km from Kota Baru, Kelantan.
The next accident took place just over two years later on Oct 2, 2000 when a Hawk 108 skidded while landing at Labuan Air Base in Labuan after carrying out normal flight training; the pilot survived the incident.
This was followed by a series of fatal crashes on Dec 18, 2003 when two pilots were killed when a Hawk 100 crashed in the waters of Pantai Sepat, Kuantan, Pahang and June 23, 2005 when a Hawk 208 fighter jet crashed at Labuan Air Base, killing its pilot.
However, the next crash – on May 4, 2007 at the Kuantan Air Base – was not fatal, with the pilot surviving.
This was followed by another fatal crash on June 15, 2017 when a Hawk 108 was feared missing north of Kuantan between Terengganu-Pahang border after losing contact at 11.30 am. Two pilots were confirmed killed in the incident in a forest swamp in Cukai, Terengganu.
Finally, the last and most recent incident was on Tuesday (Nov 16) at the runway of the Butterworth Air Base, where one pilot survived while the other was killed. – Bernama.
Source: The Star
