Malaysian drowns at US park

NEW YORK: Malaysian student Nublan Zaki Norhadi had been looking forward to flying home to join his family in Kuala Lumpur this week and meeting up with friends during his three-month summer break.
Sadly, it will not happen. The Pennsylvania State University freshman drowned in a pool at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Sunday.
His body was flown to Kuala Lumpur at 10pm last night on the same MAS flight in which he had booked his ticket home.
The 20-year-old Mara scholar, affectionately known as Bulan to his friends, had left his university last Friday on a road tour with about 30 university mates.
They arrived at the park on Sunday evening and he was reported missing at around 7.30pm.
His body was found some 10m underwater at Abrams Fall by divers from the Special Operations Response Team at about 1.30pm on Monday, following a three-hour rescue operation.
Both the Malaysian Mission here and his parents in Kuala Lumpur were notified of his death on the same day.
A Mara official in Washington made arrangements for his body to be sent from Blount Memorial Hospital, Maryville, to Newark, New Jersey, yesterday from where he was flown home.
Since Monday, Nublan’s FaceBook has been flooded with condolence messages from fellow students in the US and other countries as well as friends from Malaysia.
A Park official, Bob Miller, told the The Daily Times (of Maryville, Tennessee) that while swimming was not banned at the falls, there was a sign warning of the strong current and hazards there.
“It would have taken a strong swimmer to get out of the currents and the other students said Norhadi was not a strong swimmer,” Miller was quoted as saying.