Malaysian Airline System Flight 653

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-2H6 registered as It had been delivered new to MAS in September 1972 with registration

Sequence of events

Flight 653 departed from Runway 22 at Penang International Airport at 19:21 for Kuala Lumpur's Subang Airport (now known as Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport).

Captain GK Ganjoor and First Officer Karamuzaman Jali were making landing preparations at 19:54, while at an altitude of 4000 feet over Batu Arang and descending toward Runway 33 at Subang Airport, when the crew reported to Subang Tower that an "unidentified hijacker" was on board, after someone knocked on the cockpit doors. Subsequently, the pilots were forced to cut off all communications by one or more hijackers who suddenly barged into the cockpit. The tower immediately notified the authorities, who made emergency preparations at the airport.

A few minutes later, the crew radioed: "We're now proceeding to Singapore. Good night." In the last few minutes of the tapes from the cockpit voice recorder, investigators heard conversation between the pilots and the hijackers about how the aircraft would run out of fuel before it could make it to Singapore, followed by a series of gunshots. They concluded that both the pilot and co-pilot were fatally shot by the hijacker, which left the plane "professionally uncontrolled". At 20:15, all communication with the aircraft was lost. At 20:36, the residents of Kampong Ladang, Tanjung Kupang in Johor reported hearing explosions and seeing burning wreckage in a swamp. The wreckage was later identified as the aircraft; it had hit the ground at a near-vertical angle at a very high speed. There were no survivors.

Investigation and aftermath

The full circumstances of the hijacking and crash were never solved.{{efn|Airport officials at Kuala Lumpur said pilots had radioed that members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) had hijacked the plane. In 1996, while reporting about the hijacking and crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, CNN reporters wrote that the hijackers of MH653 had in fact been identified as Red Army members, but this has never been confirmed. A 1978 report conducted by Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation, which included a transcript of available cockpit voice recordings, did not refer to any such communication from the pilots mentioning the JRA, or the identity of the hijackers. An analysis by Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation of evidence from the investigation concludes that:

• The aircraft was "hijacked by person or persons unknown", who were determined not to land at Kuala Lumpur
• The crew "carried out their hijack procedures properly and correctly... throughout the flight."
• The hijackers incapacitated the crew as the aircraft descended in its approach to Singapore
• There was no explosion, fire, or structural failure prior to impact
• Unusual pitching – up and down – movements occurred in the aircraft's final moments in the air. These manoeuvres were the result of the actions of person or persons unknown and developed until the aircraft's trajectory became unrecoverable, resulting in its impact with the ground All recovered remains were x-rayed in an attempt to discover evidence of a projectile or weapon, but no such evidence was ever found. The remains of the victims were interred in a mass burial.

After the incident, the Aviation Security Unit of the Airport Standard Division of the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia was established.

Passengers and crew

Passengers included the Malaysian Agricultural Minister, Dato' Ali Haji Ahmad; Public Works Department Head, Dato' Mahfuz Khalid; and Cuban Ambassador to Japan, Mario García Incháustegui.

The numbers and nationalities of the passengers and crew appear in the table below:

Notes

References

References

1. (4 December 1977). "A hijacked Malaysian airlines jet with 100 persons aboard exploded and crashed Sunday night". [[Associated Press]].
2. (15 September 1995). "Malaysia Airlines flight crashes with 50 on board". [[Agence France Presse]].
3. (15 September 1995). "Worst MAS plane crash occurred in 1977". [[New Straits Times]].
4. (4 December 1977). "All 100 Aboard Killed in Crash of Hijacked Malaysian Airliner". Toledo Blade.
5. (1977-12-05). "Hijacked Jet Crashes in Malaysia; All 100 Aboard Are Feared Dead". The New York Times.
6. Ranter, Harro. "Hijacking description, Boeing 737-2H6 9M-MBD". [[Flight Safety Foundation]].
7. (1 September 1996). "328 killed in nine incidents". New Straits Times.
8. Taylor, Phil. (2014-04-14). "Hijacked airman's family still suffering 37 years after crash".
9. "Revisited after 36 years: Malaysia Airlines MH653".
10. Dennis, William. (4 January 2000). "Asian Rebound Boosts Startups, But Safely Remains A Concert {{sic}}". Aviation Daily.
11. (28 March 2014). "Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 surfaces pain of 1977 tragedy". [[CNN]].
12. (1977-12-05). "Investigators Searching Crash Site for Clues About Hijackers".
13. (25 November 1996). "Ethiopia mourns crash victims". [[CNN]].
14. Dempsey, Kylan. (2020-10-21). "Who hijacked Malaysia Airlines 653? Revisiting the mystery 43 years on".
15. Bin Salman. (August 1978). "Boeing 737 9M-MBD: Accident near Gelang Patah, Negeri Johor on 4th December, 1977 – Report 1/78". Aircraft Accident Investigation Team, Department of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Transport, Malaysia.
16. (18 September 1995). "Mass burial planned for unidentified victims". New Straits Times.
17. (24 February 2015). "Aviation Security: Key Officers – Profile: Hj. Abdul Rahman Bin Mahat, Director of Aviation Security Division".
18. (15 January 2000). "Memorial tells a sad tale of neglect". Business Times.
19. Ramendran, Charles. (2021-03-12). "Who hijacked Flight MH653?". The Sun.
20. (8 December 1977). "Common burial for air crash victims". [[The Straits Times]].
21. (6 December 1977). "Night minister couldn't sleep {{!}} The full list of passengers {{!}} The crew". The Straits Times.