6/6: Donald Mojuntin, then 11, recalls plane calamity
Daddy’s boy: “If he had been around, I would have had the benefit of his guidance”.
Samantha Rae, Borneo Insider
An 11-year old Donald was playing badminton with his younger brother Charles to kill time while waiting for their Minister dad, Peter Mojuntin to return from Labuan.
Dad never returned home that day. The next time Donald and family saw Peter, he was lying in a Sabah flag-draped casket.
Instead, the Mojuntin siblings saw an ashen-faced and anxious maternal grandfather, Datuk Lidwin Mobijohn who drove to the house compound and got his daughter Nancy (wife of Peter) to come into the house.
The ‘Golden Son of the Kadazan’ had died.
Peter was among 11 people which included then Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens and two other Cabinet colleagues who perished in the Double Six tragedy in 1976.
Despite that incident taking place 37 years ago, Donald who went on to emulate his father by winning the Penampang Parliament seat (2004) and the Moyog State seat (2008) vividly recalls that tragic day.
“Dad had an engagement later that evening as he was to officiate at the finals of the Datuk Peter Mojuntin Shield (football) in Penampang. As you know, he never made it.
“We were waiting for him to come back from Labuan where we only knew he was on official state business. The next thing we knew, granddad and mum got back into the car and drove off. Mum was in tears,” said Donald when met at the Double Six memorialWednesday.
“We were not told anything then but later found out that mum was taken to the hospital to wait for the bodies of dad and his colleagues which were being extricated from the crashed plane.
“Soon people started streaming to the house, all grim-faced and rather quiet. They were all sad and we knew something (bad) had happened.
“It was all a blur after that. The body was brought home from the hospital. Dad looked like he was asleep as he was the only one who had the least injury from the impact.