KUCHING: The air traffic control (ATC) here made no less than three attempts to contact the missing helicopter yesterday evening to no avail.

Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the ATC tried contacting the AS350 helicopter at 4.28pm, but did not receive a response.

“They tried again at 4.29pm, 4.30pm, and 4.36pm, no response was received. “There were four helicopters flying behind the missing helicopter.

One of it was just a minute apart,” he told a press conference at the DCA office in Kuching, today.

All helicopters also tried contacting the missing chopper but did not receive a response, he added.

Azharuddin said an alert phase was issued at 6.50pm and search and rescue operations (SAR) were activated at 7.26pm.

“The gap between the alert phase and the SAR was because we were contacting all search and rescue authorities.”-nst