UMNO Supreme council member Nazri Aziz today urged the Civil Aviation Authority to act against Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad for falsely claiming last week that his plane was sabotaged.

He said Dr Mahathir’s accusation should not be taken lightly as it affected the image of the national aviation industry and confidence in the safety of the Malaysian transport industry.

“The CAAM must use the law because Mahathir’s accusation is an irresponsible act by a former leader, made without any evidence.

“If there is an accusation that there was an act of sabotage on a plane, which was in a guarded area, it could jeopardise the world’s confidence in our public transport,” he said in a press conference near Kuala Kangsar, today.

CAAM on Sunday said it failed to find evidence supporting Dr Mahathir’s claim that the plane that was to take him to Langkawi on Friday was tampered with. Dr Mahathir had said that he had had to take another plane to the island, resulting in him missing Friday prayers there, and worse, he could have been killed if the act of sabotage had not been detected by the pilot.

VistaJet, an aircraft company, said there were no signs of sabotage on the private aircraft Dr Mahathir was to travel in.

Nazri, who is the BN Padang Rengas  incumbent,  said Dr Mahathir, who is contesting Langkawi, was clearly lying to get sympathy votes.

In Bentong, Transport MinisterLiow Tiong Lai said Pakatan Harapan Chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was welcome to furnish the police with information if he wished to pursue the matter.

“The plane had technical issues even before it took off from Singapore…because the tyre pressure was low even in Singapore, they brought the plane to Subang and tried to inflate the tyre… unfortunately they couldn’t, and they had to change the tyre.

“But that day, they could not change the tyre on time, that was why the flight could not take off, it is just a technical issue, where they could not change the tyre on time, that’s why they had to take another flight,” he told reporters.

Umno Supreme Council member Ismail Sabri Yaakob dismissed Dr Mahathir’s allegations as “drama”.

Sabri said such drama from the former prime minister was not new. 

“He will continue with his political gimmicks to get sympathy.” – April 30, 20130