S’pore Actor Seriously Injured During Reservist Training in New Zealand

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a celebrity, an influencer or a CEO: as long as you’re a Singaporean male, you’d still need to go for NS and another ten cycles of ICT.

The only difference for celebrities, at least according to rumours, is that they can request not to follow the NS hairstyle due to their job requirements.

Today, it’s reported that one of our celebrities was injured during a reservist training.

Aloysius Pang

If you’ve not been watching Channel 8 dramas, you might not be familiar with Aloysius Pang.

The baby-faced 28-year-old actor is one of the 8 Dukes of Caldecott Hill—in other words, he’s one of the more popular actors in Singapore, starring in blockbuster Channel 8 dramas like You Can Be an Angel 2, Dream Coder and 29th February.

He has been acting since nine and has even appeared in the 2002 popular drama Bukit Ho Swee when he was mere twelve.

A full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1999 to 2017, he is now managed by NoonTalk Media, an artiste management company that’s co-founded by host and ex-DJ Dasmond Koh.

Last year, he was charged for drink-driving and pleaded guilty without defending himself, stating that “as a role model, I know I should not have done this and I will bear the consequences.”

Going for ICT

Earlier this month on 5 January 2019, he posted an image in his Instagram, informing his 184K fans that he’s going for his ICT and would be back at the end of the month.

Turned out he’s going for overseas training (FYI, yes, reservist soldiers still get the chance to go for overseas exercises): he was involved in Exercise Thunder Warrior in New Zealand, an annual exercise between Singapore and New Zealand armies that started since 1997.

Unfortunately, an accident happened yesterday afternoon (19 January 2019).

Sustained Serious Injury While Carrying Out Repair Work

Aloysius is a armament technician (commonly known just as “Technician” in the army) and holds the rank of Corporal First Class.

While repairing a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer (pictured below) at about 2:05 p.m.(Singapore time) yesterday, he sustained serious injury. It is unknown how he got injured.

Mindef has released a statement about this incident:

At approximately 1405hrs (SG time) on 19 January 2019 (Saturday), a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Operationally Ready National Serviceman, Corporal First Class (National Service) [CFC (NS)] Pang Wei Chong, 28, an Armament Technician from the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery, sustained a serious injury while carrying out repair works on a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer. The serviceman was participating in Exercise Thunder Warrior, at Waiouru Training Area, New Zealand.

CFC (NS) Pang was transferred to the Battalion Casualty Station at 1425hrs (SG time) where he was assessed and stabilised by the Medical Officer, before being evacuated to Waiouru Camp Medical Centre at 1450hrs (SG time) where treatment was continued. At 1610hrs (SG time), the helicopter arrived at Waiouru Camp and CFC (NS) Pang was prepped for heli-evacuation. At 1650hrs (SG time), he was heli-evacuated to Waikato hospital, Hamilton, New Zealand. CFC (NS) Pang was conscious throughout the evacuation and arrived at the hospital at 1800hrs (SG time) where he underwent surgery, which was completed at 2340hrs (SG time). He is now being monitored in the high dependency unit.

An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the incident.

The Ministry of Defence and the SAF are assisting CFC (NS) Pang’s family during this period.

Actor Conscious But Unknown If He Requires Another Surgery

NoonTalk Media has posted an update on their Facebook Page, confirming the incident.

In case you can’t read:

We have just received a not too pleasant news this morning. Our NoonTalk Media artiste Aloysius 冯伟衷 who is currently on reservist in New Zealand has met with an accident while participating in an exercise. Aloysius’s mum is currently travelling to New Zealand and NoonTalk Media is also in close communication with MINDEF. We will provide updates on Aloysius’ condition when we have more information.

According to Dasmond Koh, the actor is conscious but is being assessed on whether he needs another round of surgery.

Aloysius’ mother is already on the way to New Zealand, while the authorities are arranging for other family members to head over.

We here at Goody Feed hope that Aloysius will recover soon!