The final report by the Air Accident Investigation Bureau concluded that Captain Clifford William Fournier had failed to inspect an excessive oil leak and damage to parts of the Eurocopter Dauphin after landing on a football field in Muadzam Shah, Pahang.
There was also passenger intervention on several occasions prompting the pilot to rush home, which could have created pressure on him, the report said.
The helicopter crashed into a rubber plantation near Kampung Sungai Pening Pening, in Selangor, on April 4, killing the captain and his passengers Rompin MP Jamaluddin Jarjis, the prime minister’s principal private secretary Azlin Alias, operations assistant Aidana Baizieva, bodyguard Razakan Seran and businessman Huat Seang.
Those on board were returning to Subang from Pekan after the wedding reception of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s daughter Nooryana Najwa and Daniyar Kessikbayev.
Inspections of the cockpit voice and flight data, as well as the last landing site before the accident, revealed that the helicopter’s left main landing gear had sunk 50.8 centimetres in the loose soil. This caused the aircraft to tilt more than 13 degrees to the left.
“There was also evidence of an excessive fluid leak in the sink hole made by the left landing gear as well as on the grass some 10 metres ahead of the landing point.”
The report also published transcripts of the conversations between Fournier and the passengers, recorded by the cockpit voice recorder.