KOTA KINABALU, Oct 7 — Efforts to fly back two navy crew members from the CB204 gunboat have been hampered by bad weather.

Region Two navy commander Rear Admiral Datuk Mohammad Rosland Omar said they hope to bring the boat back as soon as possible with the two crew members, who are said to be in need of medical attention.

Chief petty officer Christopher anak Mani is reportedly suffering from gastric while petty officer Steven Hudson sustained injuries from being electrocuted. The two were transferred to KD Lekiu.

“We tried to fly them back with our helicopter from KD Lekiu at about 1pm, but the weather was too bad — low clouds, heavy rain and the waves hampered efforts, so we had to land,” he said in a press conference here.

They are expected to arrive at the Sepanggar navy base here at 11am tomorrow with current weather forecasts, or by 7pm at the latest.

Rosland said that they are now about 114 nautical miles from Kota Kinabalu, and are being towed back to the Sepanggar base by KD Ganas which took over from KD Paus after the latter vessel had to attend to complications of water mixing into their oil tanks.

“KD Lekiu is also accompanying the operations, and the three vessels are always within a one mile radius of each other,” he said, adding that five crew members of CB204 are still on the boat.

Rough waves of up to 2.5 metres limits travel speed to some five to six knots.

“Based on our calculations, they are estimated to arrive here earliest at 11am, and the latest, at 7pm tomorrow,” said Rosland, adding that family members had been informed and will be brought to the base here to welcome their loved ones home.

Others members onboard CB204 were Lt Commander Azri Bakar, Ince Evin, Nor Azuan Ariffin, Sulhajji Daah and Mohd Azhry Maani.

Gunboat CB204 had taken off with navy vessel KD Paus early Sunday morning at 5am when they encountered waves up to four metres high.

KD Paus contacted the base saying that both the vessels would turn back due to bad weather but at 11.15am, KD Paus reported it had lost sight and communication with CB204.

Six vessels and three aircrafts from the navy and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency were deployed in the search and rescue operations.

A distress call was picked at about 3pm yesterday from CB204, which said it was experiencing engine and steering gear problems and had drifted some 30 nautical miles off the navy security post.

By 6.50pm, RMN chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar confirmed on Twitter that the communication with the boat was established and by 7.12pm, KD Paus came close enough to the boat to pass them food rations.