KUALA LUMPUR: More than four decades have passed, yet the Cessna 206 crash at Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, remains etched in the nation’s memory as a tragedy involving one of Malaysian politics’ most formidable figures.
On Jan 11, 1982, then foreign minister Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie was found alive in a bamboo thicket after being lost for 30 hours in the forest near Kampung Janda Baik.
Due to the dense canopy, he had to be hoisted by rope through the branches into a Royal Malaysian Air Force helicopter.
The man known affectionately as King Ghaz was initially taken to the search and rescue operations centre at Kampung Som Som Hilir in Bentong, Pahang.
The Kuala Lipis-born statesman was later transferred to Ward 14 of the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital for treatment, according to National Archives records.
The morning before, the aircraft piloted by Ghazali had departed from the Royal Selangor Flying Club for Kuala Lipis before crashing.
The crash claimed the lives of Ghazali’s bodyguard, Charoen Daan, and Royal Selangor Flying Club flight instructor Varghese Chacko.
An inquest held a year later saw the coroner rule that the deaths of Charoen and Varghese were an air accident.
Ghazali, who served under four prime ministers from Tunku Abdul Rahman to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, died of old age at 88 at his home in Subang Jaya on Jan 24, 2010.
Seen as an architect of national development, Ghazali was instrumental in drafting and implementing the New Economic Policy and the Second Malaysia Plan 1970-1975.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
