Papua New Guinean flight crashes into the Pacific Ocean after overshooting runway in Micronesia
A flotilla of local boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew members from Air Niugini’s sinking aircraft. Four passengers, however, are in a serious condition.
A Papua New Guinean flight on Friday landed short of the runway in the Federated States of Micronesia and crashed into the sea, Reuters reported. A flotilla of local boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew members from the national carrier Air Niugini’s sinking aircraft.
The injured are being treated at a local hospital. Four passengers are in a serious condition, having suffered bone fractures and other injuries, the news agency quoted the hospital spokesperson as saying.
The national carrier issued a statement saying “the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of the incident”. A spokesperson from Papua New Guinea’s Accident Investigation Commission said investigators would soon be deployed to the site.
The Boeing 737-800 is purportedly a 13-year-old aircraft that was previously operated by Jet Airways and Air India Express and was involved in a collision at Port Moresby in May, The Guardian reported.
In 2013, a Lion Air flight overshot the runway in Indonesia’s Denpasar and landed in the sea. All 101 passengers were rescued from the aircraft.
From Bill Davis of Chuuk, "Just to clarify, the plane did NOT land on the runway and then fell off. It landed in the lagoon before the runway. It was coming in too low." #AirNiugini crash in Chuuk Lagoon, FSM
— makereta komai (@burebasgal) September 28, 2018