An NSman & a Regular Are Charged in Military Court for Aloysius Pang’s Death

If you watch local drama, you’d have seen My One in a Million at 9:00 p.m.

The main lead was initially given to Aloysius Pang, but after his accident and eventually his demise early this year, the role was given to Lawrence Wong.

The drama’s showing its eighth episode in Channel 8 today (it was shown earlier in Toggle), and on this day, whereby Aloysius should be on TV, the two people responsible for the accident were charged instead.

About two months ago, details of the accident were revealed: it turned out that the late Aloysius Pang, together with two servicemen, were not following the SOP when they carried out repair work.

Today, it’s revealed that the two servicemen were regular technician Military Expert 2 (ME2) Ivan Teo, who’s 35, and Third Sergeant (3SG) Hubert Wah, who’s 31 and is a NSman.

What Happened That Day

On that fateful day, ME2 Teo had told Pang that the gun barrel was going to be moved and asked for him to move away, but Pang said that it was fine.

Teo then continued his work.

On the other hand, 3SG Wah, the gun commander who was controlling the gun barrel, had seen Pang in the danger zone, but he still moved the gun barrel, thinking that Pang would have enough time to move away.

He did shout the instruction of “Standby, clear away” before lowering the barrel.

But it was too late.

Pang Continued to Work and The Two Soldiers Panicked

As the barrel was lowered, Pang continued to work but once the gun barrel was closing in, he made “evasive movements”.

However, he could not get out of the way in time and was crushed between the flick rammer and the slew ring.

3SG Wah, as well as the ME2 Teo, panicked after seeing Pang unable to get out of the way and made irrational actions.

3SG Wah had tried to stop the barrel via the main control while ME2 Teo pushed against the barrel with his own hands.

But if they had activated the red emergency buttons near them, the barrel would have stopped lowering.

Charges Faced By the Two Servicemen

ME2 Teo faces three charges – one charge for disobedience of general orders under Section 21 of the SAF Act, and two charges for causing death by negligent act under Section 304A(b) of the Penal Code.

For his first charge, he could be jailed up to two years, and for the second charge, he could be jailed up to two years and/or fined.

3SG (NS) Wah faces two charges – causing death by rash act under Section 304A(a) of the Penal Code, and causing death by negligent act under Section 304A(b) of the Penal Code.

A person convicted for causing death by rash act faces jailtime of up to five years, a fine, or both.

As this happened in another country, the SPF didn’t have the jurisdiction to conduct the investigations, so investigations were done by SAF’s Special Investigation Branch (SIB). The duo is also charged in a military court, instead of a civilian court, as well.

The two are now out on bail and proceedings will resume four weeks later. In addition, both of them will apply for pro bono (free) legal services.