SAR to locate missing army commando enters fourth day

MELAKA: The search and rescue (SAR) operation to locate an army commando, who was feared to have drowned while undergoing diving training in the waters of Pulau Undan on Wednesday, resumed on the fourth day today at about 7 this morning.

Melaka Tengah district police chief, Christopher Patit said as of yesterday, no new leads had been found to locate the 25-year-old victim.

"The operation will continue with additional assistance from the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA). We have also informed their counterparts in Indonesia of this incident, to pay attention in their waters," he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan MMEA director, Capt (Maritime) Iskandar Ishak, said that the search this morning was divided into six sectors for assets at sea and two sectors for assets in the air, to facilitate the search.

"A total of 17 assets have been deployed to the search location, consisting of 15 sea assets and two air assets, with 205 members from various agencies covering a search sector area of 1,000 square kilometres.

"Yesterday, the MMEA rescue diving team conducted a dive at the location where the victim was reported missing. The dive was carried out approximately 50 metres from the victim's last location to analyse the probability of the area where the victim would surface or drift away," he said in a statement here today.

He said the Putrajaya Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) has also informed Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) to assist in this operation, because there is a possibility that the victim has been swept into the waters of the neighbouring country, based on data and information from the Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System ( SAROPS).

"People who have any information related to the incident can direct it to the Melaka and Negeri Sembilan Maritime operations centre at 06-387 6730 and MERS 999, which operates 24 hours daily to assist operations," he said.

On Feb 7, it was reported that the victim, Lance Corporal Edrin Baintim, was feared drowned while undergoing combat diving training, at 0.7 nautical miles southwest of Pulau Undan.

-- BERNAMA