Australian tribunal allows full release of country’s reports on ‘Double Six’ plane crash

KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Australia’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Sydney has decided to allow the release of the entirety of Australia’s reports on the 1976 Double Six tragedy.

The matter was confirmed by lawyers Datuk Alex Decena and Jordan Kong of Messrs. Jayasuriya Kah & Co — who are appointed by former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh.

They told Malay Mail that the Australian government will be handing the reports to the firm, after which the firm will make the documents public.

However, the firm was unable to confirm when the reports would be handed to them.

Documents sighted by the Malay Mail show that the Australian tribunal, consisting of senior member G. Lazanas, came to the decision yesterday in accordance with Section 40 of Australia’s Archives Act 1983.

This comes after Harris made an application on May 12, 2022 to the National Archives of Australia (NAA) to release the reports — after which both parties came to an agreement.

The application to the NAA was filed by Stephen Blanks of SBA Lawyers and Tom Brennan SC of 13 Wentworth Chambers, on the instruction of Messrs. Jayasuriya Kah & Co.

To note, the Double Six tragedy is an epithet for a flight crash on June 6, 1976 where Sabah chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens and several other key Sabah leaders died.

The plane they crashed in was a Nomad N-22B aircraft, manufactured by the Australian government-owned Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) — which gave GAF authority to do its own investigation on the crash.

However, back in 1977, Malaysia had decided to keep its own reports on the crash confidential and asked Australia to keep its reports confidential too.

Australia then agreed to Malaysia’s request in line with international aviation-related conventions.

Over the years, Australia had released parts of its reports, but with redactions.

However, earlier this month, the Malaysian government finally declassified its reports on the tragedy, with Transport Minister Anthony Loke confirming that Malaysia had given its approval to Australia to do the same.

The Australian reports that are set to be released include the 50-page GAF Investigation Team report, which is named by the NAA as “Record B5535”.

A complimentary report named “Record B5535” — which contains two parts — will also be released.