Inspections did not detect any malfunction of the lowering mechanism of the Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer (SSPH) gun barrel that crushed Singapore actor Aloysius Pang and led to his death, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen told Parliament yesterday.
The two other servicemen in the howitzer's cabin with Corporal First Class (NS) Pang, 28, were experienced in SSPH maintenance.
One of them is an operationally ready national serviceman (NSman) with the rank of Third Sergeant, who performed the role of gun detachment commander, and the other is a regular who is an armament technician and holds the rank of Military Expert 2. Both of them have been redeployed from their operational roles.
CFC Pang, an armament technician, died four days after suffering injuries on Jan 19 during a military exercise in New Zealand.
Dr Ng said this crew had been trained specifically on the SSPH and had conducted similar maintenance works on it in the past, adding that during the exercise in New Zealand last month, checks were done on the guns daily.
The Defence Minister was giving a ministerial statement in response to more than 10 questions filed by MPs relating to the incident and to training deaths in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in the last two years.
Dr Ng said he would only state facts in reply to the questions and "consciously not draw any inferences or conclusions on the incident involving CFC Pang", as he called for the need to be sensitive to the family's feelings.
On Jan 19, CFC Pang was doing repair work on the gun's calibration system for accurate firing inside the SSPH when he could not get out of the way of the gun barrel in time as it was being lowered.
Following the incident, Dr Ng said the SAF's "immediate task" was to ensure that there was no "systemic machine malfunction of the SSPH", as this would put other maintenance crew members at risk.
"Inspections of the SSPH have not detected any machine malfunction of the gun-lowering mechanism," he said.
Dr Ng said the regular armament technician in the cabin with CFC Pang had been in service for more than 16 years, with eight years of working experience on the SSPH. It was also his sixth time participating as a technician in Exercise Thunder Warrior - which CFC Pang was participating in.
The gun commander was on his eighth in-camp training and had undergone refresher training prior to his deployment in the exercise, said Dr Ng. Both personnel were not named.
The SSPH's gun barrel is usually tilted upwards for firing but needs to be lowered for some types of maintenance work, he said.
When fully lowered, the rear end of the gun goes up and ends about 10cm below the top rim of the cabin, but there is still adequate space for people within the cabin to be in their various safe positions.
Dr Ng said: "No one should be behind the barrel when (the) gun is being lowered.
"Unfortunately, CFC (NS) Pang was caught between the gun barrel and the interior of the SSPH as the gun barrel was lowered, and (he) sustained compression injuries to his chest and abdominal areas."
In the incident, Dr Ng said CFC Pang, who was first activated, requested and received help from regular technicians as he was unable to resolve the fault. He added that the actor, along with the two others, were familiar with the safety procedures that are taught to all maintenance and SSPH operating crew.
The regular technician, who is overall in-charge, is responsible for ensuring that the gun has been lowered and fixed in place before any maintenance work can begin, said Dr Ng.
The minister also responded to a question by Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh, who asked whether the design of the SSPH will be reviewed to determine possible flaws.
Dr Ng said the SSPH had undergone extensive trials and evaluations before its introduction in 2003, and other militaries - such as those of the United States, South Korea and Germany - also operate tracked 155mm guns with similar gun-lowering mechanisms.
He added: "We owe it to CFC(NS) Pang and his family, indeed to all Singaporeans, to get to the bottom of what happened, and make things right, to ensure the safety of the NS training system as a whole."
