It was the first time guerrillas shot down an aircraft throughout the Malayan Emergency and subsequent communist insurgency in Malaysia and represented the first personnel killed in action in RMAF history.

A second attack happened on 22 December 1974, when a Nuri conducting a casevac near Weng, Baling was shot, forcing the helicopter to take off while its casualty was still hanging outside the aircraft.

[4] The Ulu Muda forests surrounding the village of Gubir in Sik, Kedah, became a defensive stronghold of the MNLA during the insurgency and was even reported to have housed Chin Peng, the secretary general of the CPM.

Its main mission was to capture an MNLA training camp codenamed Target Bravo, which contained an underground tunnel network near the Malaysian–Thailand border.

The assault began after the bombardment ended, but during the approach towards Target Bravo, the helicopter fleet was attacked by MNLA insurgents and was forced to abort the mission.

[13][14] At 10:23 am, while flying low and preparing to land troops on Target Bravo, the aircraft was struck by small arms fire from MNLA insurgents, and within two minutes contact from FM1715 was lost.

[11] The situation at Gubir, with almost 300 guerrilla fighters still hiding in the forests, and the general rise of violence in the insurgency, was among the factors that prompted government to order the expansion of the Malaysian Armed Forces by 30,000 men in mid-1976.