Singapore halts military field exercises, reviews annual training after death of actor Aloysius Pang

The island nation’s army says it will reduce the length, intensity and frequency of these programmes after Pang’s death

The 28-year-old was crushed when a gun barrel was lowered on a large artillery device he was helping to repair

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Aloysius Pang Pang had completed his full-time service, and was an armament technician whose rank was corporal first class. Photo: Facebook

Published: 9:15am, 25 Jan 2019Updated: 8:31pm, 25 Jan 2019

Singapore’s military said Thursday it will reduce the length, intensity and frequency of its training programmes after an actor in the reserves died from injuries he sustained overseas.

Aloysius Pang was on a military training exercise in New Zealand when a gun barrel was lowered on a large artillery device he was helping to repair Saturday. It crushed his abdomen and chest.

On Wednesday, the defence ministry said Pang had been put on life support following surgeries to repair his damaged organs. Pang died at Waikato Hospital later that day. He was 28.

In a briefing on Thursday, Chief of Defence Force Melvyn Ong said the Singapore Armed Forces would modify its training programmes in the weeks ahead.

“This reduction of training tempo … will be enforced for as long as it takes for us to get it right. And we want to do it right, we want to do it safe for every activity, we want to do it right every time,” Ong said, according to The Straits Times newspaper.