Pulau Pawai (巴歪岛)

Pulau Pawai, also known as Alligator Island during the colonial times, is a 182,000 m² island located within the Singapore Armed Forces Live Firing Area. It is located off the southwestern coast of Singapore, between Pulau Sudong to its north and Pulau Satumu to its south. It is one of the three islands owned by the Singapore Armed Forces for live firing exercises, the other two being Pulau Sudong and Pulau Senang. The Marine Police also use the island for live firing exercises. A typical day for Pulau Pawai begins with a dozen men setting up targets, checking that the area is free of people who may have inadvertently trespassed into the range, and informing airbases that the island is ready for the exercise. Boat patrols are also deployed around the island which is off-limits to the public.

Since the early 1980s, the island together with Pulau Senang and Pulau Sudong, these three islands formed the Singapore Armed Forces southern islands military training area and live-firing zone. As with all other military installations within the country, the entire live-firing zone is strictly off limits to all civilians at all times of the day and night. The island is used mainly as a practice range for live-ammunition bombing both from the air and the ground. The Republic of Singapore Air Force and Navy take turns to use it, with the Air Force practicing strafing and the Navy practicing shelling targets.

Pawai’s lush green and brown forests are mostly undisturbed and it has been found to have a rich biodiversity of coral reefs, especially fringing reefs.

“Pawai” means cortège (French: procession, retinue) or suite of the Raja, so presumably the retinue of the Raja stayed on this island.

Panoramic Image of The Southern Islands of Singapore
Islands of Singapore
Names of Some Singapore Islands

Fishing trip turns tragic
September 27, 2011 – 12:11am
By: Zul Othma
A MAN drowned while snorkelling during a fishing trip in the waters off Pulau Pawai on Sunday. Mr Ng Kok Kheng – a 43-year-old owner of a renovation company – was found floating in the water by two friends that evening. He was last seen returning to the boat to change his diving mask.

The fishing enthusiast, who regularly made trips to the area with his friends, was pronounced dead by paramedics at 7pm when he was brought back to shore. His wife, Madam Nancy Hiah told The New Paper at her husband’s wake that none of Mr Ng’s friends had heard any cries for help.

Ng Kok Kheng, 43 (Passion For Fishing)

Time now is 1.45pm, as I was uploading this photograph, loud thunder roared at intermittent interval, a total of 3 times…

I can’t believe it, he’s a good swimmer
Wife of businessman who drowned on fishing trip says husband was a very good swimmer. -TNP
Zul Othman
Thu, Sep 29, 2011
The New Paper

A fishing trip turned tragic when a man drowned while snorkelling in the waters off Pulau Pawai on Sunday. Mr Ng Kok Kheng, 43 – who owns a renovation company – was found floating in the water by two friends at about 6.35pm that evening.

The island, south-west of Singapore, is used by the Singapore Armed Forces for live-firing exercises. Mr Ng, a fishing enthusiast, regularly made such trips with his friends. The men had decided to take a swim in the waters, which are about 7m deep.

Mr Ng disappeared soon after returning to the boat to change his diving mask. Relatives told The New Paper that his friends later found him unconscious, floating several metres away from their boat. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 7pm, after he was taken back to shore.

Speaking to The New Paper yesterday evening at her husband’s wake in Ang Mo Kio, his 40-year-old wife, Madam Nancy Hiah, said none of MrNg’s friends heard any cries for help.

Mr Ng, the father of two girls aged 11 and 16, had two hobbies, snorkelling and fishing.

Snorkelling, which Mr Ng picked up last year, requires no special training, only the ability to swim and to breathe through the snorkel. But for safety reasons, instruction from someone experienced is often recommended. Mr Ng also had an advanced diving certificate.

As she held back her tears, Madam Hiah, a retail supervisor, said: “He would go fishing every week and was a good swimmer, so I didn’t think he was in any danger.”

But at about 7pm on Sunday, she received a call that “devastated” her. ”When his friends called me, my first reaction was disbelief,” said Madam Hiah, who married Mr Ng in 1994 . ”He was healthy and in high spirits when he left to fish that day, ” she added.

Mr Ng’s friends told her that they were fishing from the boat several kilometres off Pulau Pawai. While fishing, they decided to go for a swim.

Dived in
Mr Ng, who was then in the boat, joined them. About 10 minutes after that, he went back to the boat to replace his diving mask, then went back into the water. But his friends lost sight of him later on.

When they found his body half an hour later, they dragged Mr Ng back onto the boat and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him. Mr Ng never regained consciousness.

The victim’s sister, Ms Ng Kwee Hong, told TNP she still can’t believe that her brother was gone. “Even when his friends called our family, we thought it was a mistake. He was known to be a good swimmer,” the 47-year-old dental therapist said. “My mother is really heartbroken by his death,” she added. After attending to the scores of relatives who came to pay their respects, Madam Hiah told The New Paper that she still could not believe that her husband was no longer by her side. She said: “It all happened very fast and when I got the news, I was shivering.”

Madam Hiah gave a forlorn smile when asked to describe her husband of 17 years. She said: “He tended to keep things to himself. “He was a caring father and fishing was his passion.”

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