Helicopter crash in Malaysia leaves 6 dead

A helicopter crash in Malaysia has left six people, including a lawmaker as well as an aide to Prime Minister Najib Razak, dead.

Malaysian officials from the Department of Civil Aviation said preliminary reports say the helicopter, which crashed and burst into flames in the town of Semenyih, about 30 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur, was flying in heavy rainfall.

The passengers were returning to Kuala Lampur after attending the wedding ceremony of Prime Minister Razak’s daughter in the town of Kuantan.

Eyewitness reports said that an explosion happened “not so high off the ground” before the helicopter crashed.

Rescue workers said they had retrieved all the charred bodies of the six people who were aboard the helicopter.

Local media reports said the victims included MP Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was also Malaysia’s ambassador to the US from 2009 to 2012; Azlim Alias who was an aide and private secretary to the prime minister; a businessman from Kedah, Robert Tan; the pilot, Captain Cliff Fournier; Chempaka Aviation owner Ajdiana Baiziera; and a bodyguard identified only as Raskan.

Last year, Malaysian aviation was frequently mentioned in media for two incidents. The first incident was the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on March 8, 2014, over the Indian Ocean with 239 people on board. The second incident involved another Malaysia Airlines jetliner, which blew up in Ukraine on July 17, leaving all 298 people on board dead.