GEORGE TOWN, Jan 21 — Operations to retrieve a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that crashed into the sea in an accident on Penang Bridge will continue tomorrow.
The operations were called off at 7.20pm as dusk approached, posing a danger to divers who went down to attach cables to the car about 20m underneath.
Marine Police Territory 1 Commander Assistant Commissioner Rosman Ismail confirmed that they had to call it off when conditions proved too dark and dangerous for the divers.
“The divers faced difficulties going down to secure the cables of the crane to the car due to strong currents and poor visibility,” he told reporters at the Marine Department’s jetty here.
In the first attempt to pull up the vehicle, the cable detached from the submerged car.
He said the divers took turns to go down to reattach the cables about four times before it became too dark to continue.
The crane arrived at KM4 of the Penang Bridge at about 5.50pm today.
After almost two hours of attempting to attach the cables, the police decided to call it off.
Rosman said the sonar device detected the car near pillar 34 under the bridge at about 4pm today.
“Divers then went down to confirm the location and mark its exact location,” he said.
The car plunged into the sea after a collision with another car at KM4 of the Penang Bridge in the early hours of Sunday.
Divers found a body still trapped inside the submerged SUV, believed to be that of 20-year-old college student Moey Yun Peng.
This is the second day of search operations involving five government agencies that started at 7am today.
Rosman said they will continue operations to retrieve the SUV at 7am tomorrow.
Malaysia Region Search & Rescue (MRSC) Langkawi along with the Maritime Enforcement Agency, Police, Marine Police, Royal Malaysian Navy, Fire and Rescue Department and Civil Defence Department were involved in the search and rescue operations.
A team of 108 people, including 38 divers and 14 boats from various agencies, were involved in the search today.
