Three Malaysian paratroopers including two women died at sea and 11 were injured Sunday during a training exercise for an airshow on the resort island of Langkawi, military officials said.
The victims were among 138 paratroopers practising a mock "seizure" of Langkawi's airport planned for the airshow's opening ceremony on Tuesday, when strong winds blew them off course and out to the ocean.
"Due to the uncertainty of the wind some of the jumpers were out of range from the proposed landing point so the search and rescue team was activated," said Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) spokesman Zulkiflee Abdul Latiff.
"All were rescued except the three who died and the five injured," he told AFP, adding that the paratroopers were meant to land on the airfield.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi expressed sadness over the tragedy but said he hoped it would not derail the exhibition which global players such as Europe's Airbus and Boeing Co of the United States are participating in.
"I hope everything will proceed as planned although the organisers will be saddened over the incident," said the prime minister, who is due to open the event on Tuesday, according to state news agency Bernama.
Military spokeswoman Colonel Fadzlett Marican told AFP that a medical report on the victims found that one of the women had drowned while the other two died of hypothermia. She could not say how long they were in the water before rescuers arrived, but said that an investigation into the accident was ongoing.
Of the 11 injured, six were men and five were women, she added.
Bernama said the bodies of those killed were taken to Langkawi hospital which was under guard by military personnel. It quoted police as saying that some of the other paratroopers who landed on the beach became entangled in tree branches. Photographs showed another parachute over the wing of a transport aircraft parked at the airport. The Langkawi International Maritime and Airspace (LIMA) 2007 exhibition which runs December 4-8 is being held on the vacation island of Langkawi in Malaysia's north-west.
Organisers said the airshow and exhibition would go ahead as scheduled despite the tragedy. "We are saddened by the incident," organising firm managing director Ahmad Dzuhri Abdul Wahab said according to Bernama, adding that infrastructure put in place for the show had enabled the rescue units to respond swiftly.
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