A military Nuri helicopter carrying Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made a forced landing in Tuaran, about 45km from Kota Kinabalu, due to bad weather.

There were 14 other passengers in the helicopter, including Muhyiddin's press secretary Ainon Mohd and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Yahya Hussin.

All passengers, however, escaped unhurt.

According to Ainon, they were heading to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport from Kudat after the deputy minister opened the Kudat Umno division meeting at about 1.45pm.

"He is scheduled to open the Penampang Umno division meeting later today," she told Bernama.

Ainon said following the incident, Muhyiddin had asked Chief Minister Musa Aman to open the Umno meeting in Penampang on his behalf.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at the airport before leaving for Kuala Lumpur, Muhyiddin said he was grateful that all passengers in the helicopter were safe.

While admitting that this was the first time he ever experienced the suspense of an emergency landing, Muhyiddin said:

"I think the pilot had made the right decision (emergency landing) because the weather was really bad."

RMAF: It was a normal landing

Meanwhile in a related development, the Defence Ministry issued a statement later in the day to clarify that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Nuri helicopter that carried Muhyidin made a normal landing to bad weather and did not make a forced or emergency landing.

The ministry's public relations officer for Sabah, Capt Masrina Jamaludin said at the time the weather was stormy with heavy rain and lightning.

As such, she said, RMAF's 2nd Division commander Brig Gen Khairul Bakri Mustaffa wanted earlier reports that the helicopter made an emergency or forced landing to be corrected to avoid confusion.

"The real situation was that because of the prevailing weather conditions, the Nuri made the landing at Impian Jadi Resort, Tuaran," she said in a statement.

-Bernama