The ABC report on PNG aviation
... took great interest in watching the ABC report tonight on New Guinea and the issues brought up.
My experience in PNG was not too extensive. Enough to run into Sidney when we frequented the aero club and even then he expressed his concerns on the aviation investigation (or lack of) situation.
i flew with many ex-airlink pilots who knew the captain of the bandit that went down in more recent times. people regarded him very highly as a great pilot and it's incredibly sad they didn't investigate the accident properly. They recorded over the ATC tapes (containing the mayday call) 4 days after!
The thing which makes my toes prick up is the idea of having one (AUS AID DONATED) fire truck in Mt Hagen when a multiple number of jets and turboprop passenger aircraft operate in there (and other ports with NO emergency services) at any one time. we frequently caught the F100 from Mt hagen to Pt Moresby. Being from Australia it's easy to have the (wrong!) idea in your head that all these things are taken care of.. emergency services et al
As Sid pointed out... on the day a jet goes down, try picturing some 100 people escaping a burning F100 in mount Hagen and 5 PNG nationals attempting to put the fire out (using a truck that probably hadn't been checked to have any water in it in the first place....)
... thought it'd be a point to make... to send a message to Sidney (+co) saying keep up the good work and well done for sticking it out up there this long, in what would seem a battle of pushing the proverbial $h!t3 uphill
shnev