SHAH ALAM: It appears that RMAF Alor Setar airbase which houses the Kolej Tentera Udara at Kepala Batas, Kedah, has been inundated by flood waters as with much of Alor Setar, the state capital, located some 12km away. The flooding also forced the closure of the adjacent Sultan Abdul Halim Airport, from yesterday.
I believed this is the second time the air base had been inundated since the major floods in 2014. A video footage was published earlier today showing the extent of the flooding. It showed various parts of the airbase including hangars and aircraft shelters under water.
According to Berita Harian, the airbase was inundated with waters up to one meter in height. It reported that serviceable aircraft at the airbase – mostly PC-7 Mark II Turboprop trainers – had been flown out to nearby Butterworth airbase.
The report also stated that the airbase was still operating as usual despite the flooding. As this was the second time that this happened, probably it is time to find the KTU a new home. Difficult of course as money is always tight.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (3)
Its a fact that such global warming disasters will be a frequent thing and such that moving out is not viable, much like asking to move the Sultan Abdul Halim Airport because it too was flooded. With rising tides, anywhere we go would be the same eventually. What we can do is mitigate the loss by having crisis procedures to save anything important, and to reposition essential base equipments where its unaffected.
Hi Marhalim
To see this is certainly heartbreaking. Flyable PC 7’s were flown to Butterworth. In this clip, i count eight PC7’s on the tarmac. On another clip, there was a further four to six PC7’s on the tarmac. Does that mean only two to four PC7’s were flyable and flown to Butterworth? Certainly it is a concern that so few assets were airworthy prior to the storm coming. Correct me if i m wrong, but we have around twenty PC 7’s.
I believed those on the tarmac are retired PC-7 Mk 1s. Most of the Mark 11s are in Butterowrth.