KUALA LUMPUR JUNE 1:- The Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) had launched its interceptor aircrafts at 1.33pm, 31st May 2021 to have visual identification on 16 planes belonging to the Air Force of People’s Republic of China/People’s Liberation Army-Air Force (PLAAF) that had entered the air space ZMM, Kota Kinabalu FIR and close to the national air space.
RMAF in a statement said, they had detected the planes were from llyushin ll-76 and Xian Y-20 and these were strategic transportation aircrafts and capable to implement several missions.
“The aircrafts had been detected to be flying at the height between 23,000 feet till 27, 000 feet with the speed of 290 knots via Singapore FIR before entering the ZMM air space, KK FIR and then flew close to 60 miles nautical along the coasts of Sarawak Territory and were feared to have threatened the sovereignty of the country.
“RMAF had positioned its Hawk 208 from No.6 Squadron, Labuan Air Base in a preparedness stage via the RMAF Suspect Operation. Monitoring via air defence radar on those Chinese aircrafts had continued besides several attempts to direct them to contact the KK FIR air traffic control.
“When the instructions were not followed and had exceeded the border of KK FIR towards the national air space, RMAF had launched its interceptor aircrafts at 1.33pm for visual identification on the PLAAF planes,” the statement said.
The statement added, this was a serious incident involving sovereignty threat and the flight safety based on the congested air traffic in the airways in KK FIR. This incident had been specifically dealt by RMAF and Malaysia Armed Forces (MAF) generally based on the law and international flight procedures of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and National Air Defence Strategy (SPUN).
The RMAF statement added, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been informed about this matter through the Ministry of Defence. –Malaysia World News
