'No survivors' at PNG crash site

Rescue workers have found no survivors from a passenger plane that crashed in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

Mr Rudd said rescuers had reached the crash site, but there was no hope of finding anyone alive. Nine Australians were among 13 people on board.

The Airlines PNG flight was heading from the capital, Port Moresby, to the tourist area of Kokoda.

It disappeared shortly before it was due to land.

As well as nine Australians, the plane was carrying one Japanese and one Papua New Guinean passenger, and two local pilots.

'Horrible tragedy'

In a statement to parliament, Mr Rudd said he had "distressing news" for the families of those on board.


I have requested the ministers of the various responsible authorities to commence investigations into the accident

Michael Somare
PNG prime minister
"[The] Australian high commissioner in Papua New Guinea [has] been informed by Papua New Guinean officials on the ground at the crash site that they had concluded that there were no survivors from the crash," he said.

"There is a horrible tragedy involved when families send off their loved ones for what they expect to be the experience of a lifetime, only for it to turn into a tragedy such as this."

The twin-engine plane left the capital of Port Moresby bound for an airport near the Pacific island-nation's Kokoda Track, a mountainous 60-mile (100km) trekking trail.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare expressed "great sadness" over the crash.

"I have requested the ministers of the various responsible authorities to commence investigations into the accident and to furnish a report to cabinet," he said.

No official explanation has yet been given for the crash.

In a statement, the airline said the plane's two pilots were "highly experienced", adding: "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected at this very difficult time."

Mountainous terrain and lack of roads make air travel vital for the nation's six million people.

But crashes are fairly frequent - at least 19 planes are reported to have come down since 2000.

Charlie Lynn, who is also a New South Wales Liberal MP said the Rudd government had wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on "feelgood" studies of the Kokoda Track, while failing to upgrade the airport and other critical infrastructure.

Prior to Tuesday's Kokoda plane crash north of Isurava - which claimed the lives of 13 people, including nine Australians - another four Australians had died while hiking the Kokoda Track.

At least one of those deaths might have been prevented if better communication systems had been available, Mr Lynn said.

He said roads and the local airfield also had to be expanded to enable larger planes to land.

While the Government was well-intentioned, it had focused on commissioning studies on soil erosion, social mapping and village livelihood rather than addressing urgent and practical needs, Mr Lynn said.

The Australians who died this week were dairy farmer Max Cranwell and his daughter, mother of two Leanne Harris; father of two Peter Holliday, 28, and his cousin Euan Comrie, who were on their way to walk the track in a tribute to their grandfather; Sunshine Coast doctor June Canavan, 59 and friend, father of two Keith Gracie; friends Hannah Kinross and Kelly Weire; and part-time tour guide with the No Roads expedition Matthew Leonard, 28, of Melbourne.

The two pilots, a Japanese national and local guide Steven Jaruba also died.

Jenny Moala, 26, was at the controls of doomed flight CG4684. She had less than six months' experience piloting twin-engined aircraft, according to relatives.

Investigators will consider whether the pilots became disoriented in low cloud and flew into a ridge, The Australian reports.

Mr Lynn, the principal of Adventure Kokoda tour company, who first travelled to the region in 1979, has long campaigned for successive federal governments to implement a strategic plan to manage and protect the 96km stretch of Papua New Guinean jungle.

He estimates Australian trekkers have shelled out more than $100 million for the experience in the past five years alone, enabling the Australian and PNG governments to cream off more than $12 million in GST and other taxes.

In the past year, the Australian government, led by its special envoy to Kokoda, Sandy Hollway, has revived PNG's moribund Kokoda Track Authority, which distributes money collected via the permit system in which tourists pay 200 kina - about $100 - for the right to participate in the trek.

Now a quarter of all permit money ends up with the local villagers.

Mr Hollway told The Australian he had personally lobbied the PNG government and provincial leaders about the need to upgrade the Kokoda airfield, seal the road from Port Moresby to Owen's Corner and protect the water supply.

"I don't agree. The primary issues have been to deliver benefits to the local communities along the track and that's been done in one of the most vigorous start-up development assistance programs I've ever seen in a remote area," he said.

Inexperience a factor in Kokoda plane crash
By PNG correspondent Liam Fox, wires

Updated Fri Apr 1, 2011 7:58am AEDT


Thirteen people died in the crash, including nine Australians. (AAP)

Video: Pilot error blamed for Kokoda plane crash (7pm TV News NSW) Related Story: ATSB handed report on fatal Kokoda crash Related Story: Families mark Kokoda crash anniversary A report into the Kokoda plane crash in Papua New Guinea in 2009 has found it was probably the result of pilot error.

Thirteen people, including nine Australians, were killed when an Airlines PNG Twin Otter crashed into a mountain near Kokoda in August 2009.

The PNG Accident Investigation Commission's final report found the crew descended into the Kokoda Gap when the weather was not conducive to visual flight.

It said there was a solid bank of cloud at the Gap at the time of the accident.

The report concluded the crash was probably the result of "controlled flight into terrain" where the plane was unintentionally flown into the mountainside.

The investigation found co-pilot Royden Sauka was not qualified to fly in instrument-meteorological conditions, but this was not considered to be a contributing factor.

It found Mr Sauka was working his sixth day in a row and was probably not qualified to be flying the plane in the bad weather conditions.

"When the crew commenced the descent through the Kokoda Gap in the reported rapidly changing weather conditions, they committed themselves to a course of action that they could not be assured of completing safely," the report said.

The difficult conditions of the flight would have tested the crew.

"It was probable that during the descent the crew were required to manoeuvre the aircraft to remain clear of cloud, or regain that status, and in so doing impacted terrain," the report said.

The plane crashed sometime around 11.14am (local time), barely 20 minutes after it took off from Port Moresby's International Airport.

The seven Victorians and two Queenslanders on board had planned to walk the Kokoda Track, while the others killed were two PNG pilots, a PNG passenger and a Japanese tourist.

The commission attributed some responsibility to the aircraft operator, saying it had no emergency procedures in place should pilots need to rely primarily on flight instruments.

But it also did not rule out the possibility the co-pilot had become incapacitated before the crash, although it noted he had appeared to be in good health.

In response to the accident, PNG's civil aviation safety authority is in the process of legislating for cockpit voice recorders to be installed in all aircraft that carry nine or more people.

CASA PNG has also set up a new chief medical officer position and shifted responsibility for incident reporting to the accident investigation commission.

Despite PNG being a signatory to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, it previously had neither a compulsory nor voluntary reporting system.

Airlines PNG has also since employed new visual flight procedures.