KUCHING: “Please bring back my husband. Me and my kids still need him.”
Those were the words of Stephanie Essah as she waited and prayed for her husband, Assistant Medical Officer Alexson Adit, before authorities confirmed that all five onboard the Flying Doctor Service (FDS) helicopter which crashed near Long Lellang had perished.
Alexson was among four Ministry of Health (MoH) personnel who died alongside the pilot when the BO-105 helicopter crashed near the Long Lellang Short Take-Off and Landing Airport (STOLport) at about 3.40 pm on Tuesday (Sept 8).
The other healthcare personnel onboard were medical officer Dr Ainul Baraah Kamarudin and nurses Debra Moset and Jessie Paya, while Captain Zainol Afiq Bee Sham was the pilot. The four MoH personnel were on official duty.
Before confirmation of their deaths, Stephanie, posting on Threads as @stephanieessah, had shared several messages reflecting the uncertainty and anguish faced by the family as they waited for updates.
“Sayang. Your name and picture is everywhere. I try to be strong but I can’t. But I am still hoping for a miracle. I hope there is still a ray of hope for my husband’s team,” she wrote.
In another post accompanying an update on the search and rescue (SAR) operation, she pleaded: “Please bring back my husband. Me and my kids still need him.”
Stephanie also shared a question from their five-year-old daughter as the family continued hoping that Alexson would return home.
“My daughter 5yrs old ask me, ‘Mommy, daddy coming back kan mommy?’” she wrote.
As heavy rain fell during the operation, Stephanie continued to think of her husband, writing: “I hope you are doing fine outside there sayang.”
Her posts drew an outpouring of support, with members of the public offering prayers and words of comfort to her and her children.
A relative, posting under the username @amyejhaylya, also shared the family’s hope before the deaths were confirmed.
“We are still holding on to hope and praying for a miracle from God.
“Lord, please protect my cousin’s husband wherever he may be. Guide him, keep him safe, and bring him back home safely to his family,” she wrote.
She added that the family was “still waiting, still praying, and still believing” in a miracle.
Miri Division Resident and Miri Divisional Disaster Management Committee chairman Galong Luang later confirmed that all five onboard had died, based on reports from the Fire and Rescue Department (BOMBA) and MoH.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) said the helicopter, bearing registration number 9M-LLF, was operating an FDS flight when it crashed.
The Air Accident Investigation Bureau under the Transport Ministry will investigate the incident.
For Stephanie and her children, the confirmation brought an end to hours of waiting and hoping for the miracle they had prayed for.
Her posts now stand as a poignant record of a family’s final hope that Alexson, who had left home to serve communities in Sarawak’s interior, would somehow make it back to them.
