News Flash on CH7. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed there are no survivors. :(

Hi,

Very sad news if in fact those on board have perished.

Does anyone know the registration of this aircraft ?

Registration is P2-MCB:(

Flown with Airlines PNG and their otters a bit and never thought they were all anything less than a good,safe operation.
Its just rough country down there.
I hope this doesnt affect the company or the Kokoda track operations too much.
Very sad for the families involved, expat and locals.

Thanks Chuck and Sundaun. Not a nice position to be in by all accounts.

Very sad news indeed, such a tragic loss of so many innocent lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends.

Do we have an exact location of the crash site, whether north or south of Lake Myola? I agree with Chimbu, when one approaches the Gap from the north, it becomes very narrow and the absolute minimum altitude for crossing in either direction is 7200 feet. Having walked the Kokoda Trail myself, the terrain under the tree canopy is extremely steep, and very dense. Between the Isurava Memorial and Lake Myola,(2 days walking) there was not one possible helicopter landing site that I can recall, so they would probably have to winch rescuers down, it will be a demanding job, especially if the weather does not cooperate.

Although quite rare, people have survived accidents of similar nature in the past as the trees and thick vegetation can often offer some cushioning. But as stated in an earlier post sadly there seems to no sign of survivors.

I knew the pilots, our prayers and condolences to their families, a sad loss to the PNG aviation flying community.

Concur with Captain Nomad. I used to go out to that area twice a week on the Jungles run. Still miss it.

Folks, please don't turn this into a condolences thread. It's extremely remote that their families will read this forum anyway.

Let's just stick to the subject matter.

Evidently Australian officials have been invited to participate in the accident investigation. It will be a rarity for PNG to have a thorough investigation of an air accident. No doubt (or rather hopefully, bearing in mind the PNG factor) all will be revealed of what went wrong.

High 6. Media reports put the crash site N of Isurava at 5500'. Which looking at the map would put it on a ridge line on either the W or E side of the valley on the Kokoda side of the range on the Kokoda gap route.

Are there suggestions here that the aircraft was below LSA for the area?

Then again, if it hit the ground, it obviously was?

Is this a correct statement?

Sadly "Foreign Correspondent' and Sid got it right nearly 12 months ago.

Of course Australia will assist with the accident investigation, PNG doesn't provide any money for themselves to do so.

The Asian Development Bank is currently throwing money at PNG for "Aviation Infrastructure" improvements. How much of that money will finish up in the pocket of a highly placed PNG CAA officer with well documented connections to Russian Helicopter operators? Graft and corruption has become the 'normal ' business practice in PNG, why would this money be any different!

Aviation in PNG will continue to be the backbone of transport in country, something it has been doing for 60 or so years.

So, what is the LSA for that area?

C'mon guys, someone must know, surely!

And they pranged on the go around and manuoever for return, is that correct?

What are the missed approach/ go around procedures?

Some one, any one...where are the charts?

Whoa, settle obie! I'm sure someone who knows the answer will answer in due course

Can you conduct an instrument approach in the PNG mountains? Or is it all visual approaches up there?

you sound like a typical Aussie pilot and by your language I judge that you have never even flown in/to PNG...so relax mate...let the men handle this...ok

Kokoda is a bush strip without instrument approach procedure (and therefore no missed approach procedure either - and no Obie, PNG CAA neither hasn't had the time nor the money to design a GPS NPA "Aussie style" for Kokoda)... if they wx is crap you do what Chimbu described in his earlier post...find a hole and spiral down into the fairly big valley VISUALLY... especially for you Obie - LSALT on the POM-Popondetta track (049 rad PY) is 13700ft and in the area from memory 15500. (and yes Obie, as long as the pilots have O2 you can go above 10000ft for no longer than 30min in PNG - before you talk about O2 requirements in OOOSTralia).

I hope this post answers your questions...

as harsh as it sounds...aeroplanes will keep crashing in PNG...unfortunately it's that simple...

Grid MSA 15300 feet. Crash site at the foothills of Mt Victoria (13300feet)amsl

Gotcha! Thanks for the info.

So we're not talking 3rd world RPT aviation even?

We're talking about 3rd world GA VFR? With a company calling itself Airlines PNG!

And the punters know about this do they?

Strewth! The 7:30 Report will have a field day with this!!

Obie, The whole country is huge mountains. Kokoda is 1300' amsl (feet above sea level) in a valley,a reasonable sized valley by PNG standards, about 3NM? wide around Kokoda by memory. Mt Victoria is 13250' amsl and is only 10-12NM to the west of Kokoda. That means the PEAK is only 10-12NM away, the foothills (mountains by most other countries standards) to Mt Victoria start only 1-2NM from Kokoda. If you havent been there it it hard to imagine the scale of it all.

Training Wheels, No instrument approach at Kokoda. Generally only at the larger coastal airports.

Regards, BB.