Defence minister Khaled Nordin said the navy has conducted the initial work, including identifying and ensuring equipment on its ship was in good condition, but will leave the refloating and salvage work to the private company, Bernama reported.

“The post-mortem has yet to be completed and is expected to take a month. We don’t know anything about the death (of the diver) as we have yet to receive the full report.

“We expect the full report on the KD Pendekar leak to take a month,” he said following an event in Kluang, Johor.

It was reported on Wednesday that navy diver Arman San Hermansa died while conducting a dive during a salvage operation.

A special investigation board has been set up to determine the cause of the incident.

None of the 39 crew members who were rescued when the KD Pendekar capsized suffered any injuries in the incident.

The navy previously said a leak was first detected in the ship’s engine room, with water rushing in and spreading uncontrollably throughout the vessel.

The KD Pendekar had been in service since 1979.