Departure Press Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Slang, in Bintulu on Saturday 16th September 1995 at 11.30 am
DAP launches mass signature campaign for the removal of the Bintulu airport from the town centre within 24 months to ensure Bintulu avoid an even worst fate than the Tawau aircrash which killed at least 34 people
I am calling this press conference to announce a mass signature campaign for the removal of the Bintulu airport from the town centre within 24 months to ensure that Bintulu avoid an even worst fate than The Tawau aircrash which killed at least 34 people should a air mishap happen at the Bintulu airport.
The Bintulu Airport is smack in the centre of Bintulu town and if there Is a air mishap like the one in Tawau yesterday, half the Bintulu town would have been destroyed and the casualties will be counted not in tens but in hundreds!
There would also have been no survivors as happened to 16 passengers in the ill-fated aircraft Tawau yesterday, when it plouged into a squatter village – for if it had happened in Bintulu the aircraft would have plunged into concrete shophouses ending in total wreckage with very little hope for survivors.
For this reason, the DAP mass signature campaign is to demand that the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik get the Cabinet to give top priority to build a new airport in Bintulu and remove the present Bintulu Airport from town centre within 24 months.
In fact, as an aftermath of the Tawau airport air-crash, the Ministry of Transport should order a review of all airports in the country and remove all airports which are too close to town centres like Bintulu.