ATW Daily News

Crash site of PNG Twin Otter believed located

Wednesday August 12, 2009

PNG Airlines DHC-6-300 Twin Otter that is believed to have crashed in Papua New Guinea yesterday, killing all 13 passengers and crew onboard, may have been located by search parties near the remote Kokoda airstrip. Flight CF4684, a charter flight that was en route from Port Moresby to Kokoda, is believed to have gone down near its intended destination. According to press reports, villagers told search parties that the wreckage was located nearby. The passengers were mostly Australians going to trek the Kokoda track, site of a famous land campaign between Australian and Japanese forces during World War II that attracts several thousand visitors each year. The aircraft left Port Moresby at 10:53 a.m. and the last communication was at 11:26 a.m., 6 min. after it was due to arrive at Kokoda.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that seven Australian passengers were missing along with three from PNG and one from Japan plus the two-person crew. He added that the search and rescue operation had been hampered by bad weather, low visibility and rough terrain. The loss, if confirmed, will be the airline's seventh accident since it was formed in 1987 as Milne Bay Air and is the 40th in PNG in the past 20 years. It is also the second loss of a DHC-6 in the region in just one week. On Aug. 2 a Merpati Nusantara Twin Otter with 15 aboard crashed into a mountainside at an elevation of 9,300 ft. near Oksibil in Indonesia (ATWOnline, Aug. 6).

by Geoffrey Thomas

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