He said Utusan Malaysia’s front page report today was baseless and called for an end to all such speculation regarding yesterday’s plane crash.

“I would like to echo what the defence ministry has said: We are investigating the crash and until the results are out, we cannot say anything.

“These reports (in Utusan Malaysia) are mere assumptions,” Mutalib said when asked to comment today.

Earlier today, Mutalib paid his last respects to pilot Major Kayamboo Chellam, 45, killed in the crash, at the Batu Lanchang Hindu burial grounds here.

Utusan Malaysia today frontpaged the headline “Elak gudang peluru” (“Avoided ammo warehouse”) from an unidentified RMAF officer claiming the plane could have avoided ploughing into an ammunitions warehouse at the Butterworth air base.

Kayamboo was called a saviour by the unnamed source because he had purposely avoided crashing into the depot.

“The pilot of the Beechcraft B200 T aircraft that crashed is believed to have prevented the aircraft from landing on Ammunitions Warehouse 2 at the RMAF Butterworth air base,” the Malay daily reported today.

Yesterday, Kayamboo died after the turboprop plane he was piloting crashed outside the RMAF Butterworth air base on mainland Penang.

It was his birthday yesterday.

Kayamboo is survived by his wife, government clinic nurse S Usha, 42, two daughters and two sons, aged two to 13.

Kayamboo was attached to the Air Force Training College in Alor Star, Kedah.

In the 5.18pm incident, Kayamboo and three others were on a training mission from Subang, Selangor, to Butterworth. They were supposed to return to the Subang air base after completing their trip.

Three others miraculously survived the crash but were seriously injured. They are now receiving treatment at the Penang Hospital.

A special team is working to ascertain the cause of the crash.