The report by the Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) of Australia said Sabah Air had submitted the draft of its operations manual towards the end of 1975, but this was never approved by the then civil aviation department (CAD).
“In this regard, Sabah Air was operating illegally,” said the report that the Australian government declassified today.
The report said that a number of facts emerged during the course of the investigations which revealed not only a “singularly poor operation” by Sabah Air, but also a “failure on the part of the CAD” to fulfil their obligations as the local certification authority.
“In the subsequent paragraphs of this section, this information is detailed as relevant to the accident because as will clearly be seen, an accident was bound to happen sooner or later,” it said.
The incident, better known as the “Double Six tragedy”, also claimed the lives of state ministers Salleh Sulong, Chong Thien Vun and Peter Mojuntin after the GAF Nomad aircraft they were in crashed in Sembulan, Kota Kinabalu.
Following the incident, the Australian GAF Nomad manufacturer and the Australian department of transport launched an investigation to prove that the crash was not due to mechanical issues.
The report also said that the accident investigation team, GAF and the department of transport completed a preliminary report for the responsible federal minister to present at a Cabinet meeting.
The preliminary report stated that the cause of the accident was that the pilot had “allowed the aircraft to be loaded well beyond its aft center of gravity (CG) limit, and as a result of this, he lost control and crashed during the final approach to land.”
Following the Cabinet meeting, the minister declined to issue a press release but agreed that GAF could advise its customers and operators that as a result of the investigation, the structural integrity of the aircraft was assured.
However, the Australian personnel were not authorised to make public any of the findings of the board of inquiry.
“The minister has called for a complete report on the accident by 30th June, 1976 when, presumably, the Malaysian government will make the findings known,” said the report.
“We are not confident that the report will be published in this timescale.”
The authors of the report believed that their detailed knowledge of the Hound aircraft enabled them to assist in the investigations and expedite a series of logical conclusions.
“This was particularly so with regard to failures found in the flying control systems during wreckage examination, loading calculations and operational and handling considerations,” said the report.
In the report, the authors also said one of the two remaining Nomad pilots in Sabah Air who was interviewed said that they “never bothered to physically calculate the loading of an aircraft” before take-off.
Instead, the report said the pilot claimed that they simply “eye-balled” the location of the baggage.
“… and if it looked satisfactory, they would take-off”.
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