While many well-wishers and fans of Aloysius Pang continued to be carried into the tentage at 82A MacPherson Lane on Saturday minutes before the wake for the Corporal First Class (National Service) was opened to the public, the Chief of Defence Force Melvyn Ong pointed how Singapore Armed Force (SAF) can improve the safety system in various areas, including heat injury and vehicular safety.
The 28-year-old Pang died on Wednesday, January 23 after sustaining serious injuries during a SAF training exercise in New Zealand. On Thursday, January 24 the SAF senior commanders said that the Singapore actor was crushed between a gun barrel of a howitzer and its cabin after he failed to get out of the way, as the barrel was lowered.
Pang was taken to Waikato Hospital, where he underwent three surgeries and later doctors put him under artificial life support for his lungs, kidneys and heart. But he lost the battle with death and doctors pronounced him dead.
The CFC (NS) Pang's body was transported to a local funeral parlour Sincere Funeral Services and later a Republic of Singapore Air Force KC-135 took off along with his body to bring Singapore's son to his homeland for the last time. On Saturday, the public was allowed into the wake in batches to pay their respects.
As per, Channel NewsAsia, a 31-year-old man, who came at the wake of Pang, said that "There have been too many NS training-related deaths. These are things which shouldn't be happening. How many heartbroken parents are out there because of all these needless deaths?"
"I was hoping that he would recover but at the back of my head, I knew that he could die too. I'm three parts angry and one part sad. This doesn't need to happen. It's unbearable," he added.
Meanwhile, Ong stated that after the unfortunate incident in New Zealand, the SAF has studied findings and implemented recommendations from experts on ways to improve the safety system. He also added that the External Review Panel on SAF Safety had given a task to oversee safety procedures and review the systems and the panel has ascertained that the safety systems are in place.
Lieutenant-General Ong stated that SAF will not take this easy as they will seek to do better by lowering the training tempo.
