PAKATAN Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reiterated claims that his jet was sabotaged and hit out at the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) for ruling out foul play before conducting proper investigations into the faulty plane.

At his first 14th general election ceramah after being nominated as the candidate for the Langkawi parliamentary seat, Dr Mahathir said the aviation authorities have confirmed that there were faults with the plane.

“CAAM knows the jet cannot fly, but whether or not it was sabotaged, it cannot be decided by the CAAM without investigations,” he said yesterday.

The 93-year-old former prime minister-turned-opposition leader was responding to a statement by CAAM chairman Azharuddin Abdul Rahman (pic) yesterday that Dr Mahathir’s allegations of sabotage were baseless.

Azharuddin said the jet was grounded because of air leakage from the left-hand nose wheel, which he said was a minor and routine technical fault.

“Accusations of sabotage towards a plane are serious and can affect the reputation of (the) airline (industry) and the country as a whole, especially in this sensitive period during the general election.

“It is immoral to make wild and false accusations for political gain,” he said in a statement yesterday.

However, Dr Mahathir told the crowd that his flight was intentionally delayed to stop him from being nominated as a candidate.

“It seems there are certain parties that know about my jet’s faults and decided that no other plane can be loaned to me to go to Langkawi.” – April 29, 2018.