Malaysian navy diver dies during salvage ops at naval vessel wreck site

A Malaysian Navy diver died on Wednesday (Aug 28) while carrying out salvage operations on the wrecked navy vessel KD Pendekar.

Arman San Hermansa was deployed to provide a cordon around the sunken fast attack craft off the Johor coast, to ensure the security of sensitive equipment.

The 28-year-old is believed to have drowned while installing floats at the site, the New Straits Times reported.

He was executing underwater tasks with another diver, who later realised Arman San had gone missing upon surfacing.

Search efforts were launched immediately.

Arman San was found at 1pm and pronounced dead. His remains was taken to Sultan Ismail Hospital for autopsy, Bernama reported.

A special board of inquiry has been formed to determine the cause of the incident, the Royal Malaysian Navy said in a statement on Wednesday.

KD Pendekar sank last Sunday after hitting an unknown underwater object, causing a leak in its engine room that resulted in "severe flooding".

All 39 crew members were rescued before the ship sank, and there were no reported injuries.

The Malaysian Navy said in an earlier statement that investigations to determine the cause of the incident are ongoing,

According to The Star, the vessel was commissioned into the Malaysian fleet in July 1979.

On Monday, Malaysia's Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin ordered an inspection of navy ships that are over 40 years old.

"We do not deny that (some of) our ships are old but that is not likely to be one of the causes... and the important thing is that thankfully no lives were lost," he said then.

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chingshijie@asiaone.com