Jet engine theft mystery deepens — The Malaysian Insider

Jet engine theft mystery deepens — The Malaysian Insider

DEC 25 — The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has now said a brigadier-general and several others sacked in 2007 have nothing to do with the embarrassing theft of two F-5E jet engines found only missing in 2008.

That makes sense.

After all, how can they be sacked before the theft was discovered?

But there precious little sense and details of the theft that has put international spotlight on Malaysia’s lax security, possible role in the global black market arms trade and corruption that has put the country at 56 in the Transparency International graft rankings.

The police are now saying the engines — the General Electric J85-21A turbojets — have been traced to Argentina. It apparently went there by way of a Middle-East nation, believed to be Iran, from Port Klang. And police are now looking for the documentation for the shipping.

No one has yet shed light how the thieves sneaked the engines, the size of a small car, out of the RMAF Sungei Besi airbase, to the port. It is also not known why the engines, said to be spares, are kept in Sungei Besi when the F-5E squadron is based in the RMAF Butterworth airbase.

The greater mystery is why would anyone want to acquire jet engines first made 30 years ago? No one has yet to reveal the answer to that, especially when the RMAF has the F/A-18Ds and the MiG-29Ns using far superior powerplants made with better technology.

For the record, Malaysia bought the 14 F-5Es in 1974 and decommissioned them in 1999. One crashed in the Malacca Strait near Perak on May 31, 1995. There are 13 now but only six are operational after they came back to service in 2003.

Selling the jet engines to Iran also does not make sense as the Islamic republic has 65 F-5 of the A, B, E and F variants, according to Wikipedia. The United States had sold them to Iran in the 1970s when the Shah was in power before being toppled in 1979.

Why would Iran want technology for a jet engine it already possesses? All the more so when its an engine made in the 1970s. Iran already has scientists said to be working on military-capable nuclear technology, so this jet engine technology is obsolete for it.

Of course, the languid response to the theft and an apparent lack of outrage when it was first discovered is shocking. And a mystery.

The RMAF lodged a report after six months of finding the engines missing. The police took a glacial pace of more than a year to investigate before sending the papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. And he is only now saying it is a “serious matter” after it finally became public, asking the police to probe further.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was the then Defence Minister, never revealed it. Neither did the Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Why? The mystery deepens.

We have two jet engines stolen two years ago from a secure military installation. They are allegedly now in Argentina.

We appear to know the what, where and when. It is the who, why and how that is missing, somewhat like the engines.

The mystery is just getting curiouser by the day, for the more we know, the less we understand this crime that underscores the public perception of the Malaysian government and the civil service.


Comments (4)

written by zackeye, December 25, 2009
A comprehensive audit should be done on the Armed forces assets. Somebody with the rank of Minister of Defence must be made responsible for writing off obsolete assets and see that these are disposed off according to strict procedure so that these do not fall in the hands of terrorists and arm smugglers.


written by Lion, December 25, 2009
Who knows what actually is going on?

Who knows what actually were stolen?

They told us 2 engines and some parts, but what parts?

Exocet missiles? Sidewinder missiles? What?


written by Charlie's Angels, December 25, 2009
To the foreigners, anything to do with Msia is full of mystery as the country's system of governance lacks accountability and transparency. With this and other mysterious cases, our international standing is slowly but surely sliding to its lowest ebbs.


written by don, December 25, 2009
During Najib tenure as Defence Minister military weapons belong to Gerik Wataniah also managed to be stolen and taken out from the camp many years back. Have we forgotten about it? I think that is the quality of our leaders.Fikirkan lah...