The first two Mi-17s, M49-01 and M49-02 arrived Subang Airport, Malaysia on 2nd September 1998 in an Antonov An-124. The two helicopters were handed over to the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Air Wing on 10th September 1998 and were named as Enggang and Pekaka. The delivery of the third and forth Mi-17 to the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Air Wing was quite unexpected. The Malaysian Government had ordered several Mi-17s for the
Royal Malaysian Police. However, when the first two helicopters arrived Malaysia, the Department of Civil Aviation refused to register the helicopters as they did not conform design guidelines set by ICAO. The helicopters need to be military registered and were given to the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Air Wing as M994-03 & M994-04. Before M994-03 was given to the the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Air Wing, it was already painted in Malaysian Police colours. The two new Mi-17s have several different features compared to the older ones in the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Air Wing such as western avionics, a dolphin nose dome (weather radar), single ramp rear door and an extra sliding door on the starboard side.
