Investigation into late actor Aloysius Pang’s death begins

SINGAPORE — A five-member Committee of Inquiry (COI) has been convened to investigate the death of the late Corporal First Class (National Service) Aloysius Pang, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen will also be delivering a ministerial statement to address recent National Service (NS) training deaths at the next Parliamentary sitting on Feb 11.

The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday (Jan 30) that the COI was convened last Friday. It will be chaired by a judge nominated by the State Court.

Its other committee members include a consultant medical specialist, a member of the External Review Panel on Singapore Armed Forces Safety (ERPSS), a member of the Workplace Safety and Health Council, and a senior-ranked national serviceman.

None of the COI members work within Mindef or are Singapore Armed Forces regulars.

“The COI has full powers and access to material and witnesses to investigate the circumstances leading to the death, determine the contributory factors and make recommendations to rectify any lapses uncovered to enhance safety of training and operations,” Mindef said.

The COI is expected to submit a report of its findings to the ERPSS for review. The ERPSS will then release a public written report on the COI findings. 

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On Jan 19, Pang, an armament technician, was on reservist and taking part in an artillery live-firing exercise in New Zealand when he was crushed by a lowered gun barrel in the Singapore self-propelled howitzer (SSPH) he was repairing.

He suffered major trauma injury that affected multiple organs and he died four days later.

In addition to its announcement on Wednesday, Mindef provided details on the standard operating procedures behind the self-propelled howitzer, which is an artillery gun mounted on an armoured chassis.

The SSPH was developed here by ST Engineering Land Systems and commissioned in 2003.

In the last 15 years of SSPH operations, there has not been any reported injury of servicemen due to the gun lowering for maintenance or operating in or firing of the howitzer, Mindef said.

Over the last 15 years, more than 1,000 servicemen, including operationally ready national servicemen (NSmen) and regulars, have been trained to operate the SSPH, with around 12,500 rounds fired in total.

The SSPH is operated by a four-man crew, comprising the gun commander, charge loader, ammo loader and driver.

Before a gun barrel is lowered, the crew members are expected to follow drills stipulated in the operator manual. Among others, the gun commander will conduct both visual and vocal checks to ensure that no crew member is in the travel path of the barrel.

In the event that the SSPH requires maintenance work during training and operations, a team of army technicians, such as Pang, will be activated and this team would take charge of the SSPH.

Mindef said that NSmen who are army technicians undergo a refresher course called Maintenance Vocational Training to refresh their technical and maintenance knowledge during every in-camp training duty.

The safety timeout that was called after Pang’s death will also remain in place until the Singapore Armed Forces is satisfied that training and other activities can be conducted safely, Mindef added.

Pang’s death was the fourth army training fatality reported since September 2017. It gripped the nation and triggered an outpouring of grief from his friends, family and fans.

Hundreds, including veteran actresses such as Zoe Tay and Fann Wong, attended the wake held over the weekend. Pang was accorded a military funeral service and cremation at Mandai crematorium on Sunday.