PNG crash
 

Yesterday 23 December news of a North Coast Aviation plane going missing with passengers. The aircraft landed and dropped off his passengers and crashed on his return trip, presumably empty. The pilot made contact but today they were unable to contact him by his phone. Heli Solutions have dropped off some North Coast crew to team up with local villagers to do a ground search. Niugini Heliworks are doing an air search.

Islander P2-ISM, and pilot David T,is OK, aircraft destroyed in weather related accident at Saidor Gap area. Bad weather in the area is hampering a rescue. Pilot in contact with rescuers via SMS.

A crash in PNG with aircraft destroyed, in bad weather, with no passengers involved, pilot OK and calls for rescue via SMS. That would have to be a first, even for PNG.

Hey guys, can anyone pm me on how to find out if the pilot is ok. He's a close friend and I thought it strange that I havnt heard from him in a couple of days.

1970 BN2A-26 ex Macair and Talair?

Commission investigates aircraft accident in Morobe | Loop PNG

https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=20171223-0

I'm surprised it's being investigated, particularly as there were no fatalities. How many investigations do they have underway? I've got a hunch the accident rate in PNG over the past 5-10 years is way lower than the long term average.

Yes, but there is considerably less flying done than there was 20 years ago.

Climbing a BN2 over Finisterre's on a good day is a lengthy challenge. In poor weather with limited track miles from departure even more so.
It's a Christmas blessing if he's managed to survive it.
Can't be too many BN2s left on the register.

Update: Christmas Day @ 17:00 hrs


Day three since aircraft crashed.
Aircraft on side of mountain at 9,200 ft (approx.)
Pilot is injured and unable to reach the survival kit in the aircraft
No food for 3 days
Freezing cold weather at that elevation at night time
Helicopters cannot get any closer than 3nm from the site
No helicopters available with a hoist
No apparent assistance from CASA PNG
Comms lost with pilot, I assume batteries now discharged.


Fingers crossed Tuesday will be a better day..........

Maybe I'm naive, but can't they lower rescuers in using ropes?

The helicopter still has to be equipped for that role. Plus at that altitude there are performance limitations.

There are 2 winch equipped helicopters in country, Helifix and Hevilift operate them. I know that Hevilift have helped out in the past.

Performance limitations would be the major problem. PNG MRCC would normally coordinate the SAR, not CASA or the AIC.

The Helifix AW139 would probably have the performance to do it, I doubt whether the Hevilift B412 would.

The helicopter, regardless of type and equipment has to actually get to the accident scene.


Latest news: Sadly the pilot has passed away and is confirmed as deceased, a very sad event where weather was the influencing factor.

Hi, pilot is a family friend, where can I get more info?

A right catastrophe when the initial survival is thwarted by whatever delays in rescue.

Sadly it happens .. I recall two ... son and mate of a close family friend, scud running, picked the wrong valley and came to grief in the Blue Mountains .. survived but died before rescue facilities were able to get to them. And the Commander off Wilsons Prom .. what a stuff up .. an AN F27 circled the survivor but the then DCA protocol wouldn't send out a nearby available helo to pick him up.

I've always worn a survival vest flying in PNG containing the basics: ELT, signal mirror, first aid kit, water proof matches, knife, water, space blanket and survival biscuit. Should the unfortunate arise you need to anticipate you will only escape with the gear tied to you. Where our life rafts and survival kits were stowed on the aircraft you'd never get to them in a ditching or crash in the tops of the trees.

All too often you hear about aircraft accidents in bad weather in PNG where rescue helicopters can't access the crash site. I know the helicopter pilots push as hard as possible to get through, but a pilot needs to be able to see the ground ahead of him to be able to fly a helicopter, and be able to see the ground behind him to turn around if he can no longer see the ground ahead of him.

Can anyone confirm who the pilot was? I have seen a name above but really don't want to believe that it's him. A great bloke, even more loyal gentlemen and amazing musician as well.

Truly sad news.

I rarely post here. I flew that aircraft to the same ports in the early eighties.

I am so sorry....

Sad news.

Hopefully the accident site is preserved to enable the recovery of the pilot and to allow the AIC to do their job so we can all learn from this tragic event.

Yes, sad news indeed.
Would an empty BN2 with, say, an hour of gas, be able to maintain height on one engine 10,000' ISA +15? I've seen BN2 take-off many times at MSL and their climb performance on 2 engines makes me wonder sometimes. One thing I didn't like in PNG was flying from A to B as a passenger in a Twin Otter...I never flew in anything smaller than that, my nerves wouldn't have been able to take it. Respect due to the guys and gals that fly them.

No GB, up there it would be lucky to maintain height on 1 engine at 5000. If it was a 260 hp Islander the performance would be even worse.

In PNG, add 2800 to your PA to get DA. That makes a 9200 ft ridge closer to 12,000DA. By which point most of the 260-300HP twins are not making much height gain, even lightly loaded.

If it was the same P2-ISM that I flew back in the early 90's it had 300hp FI engines.

Sad news.

I once brought a similar Islander back to Kerema after losing the LH engine in the Hauwabaga circuit area:eek:, just when about to turn base (which would have committed me to land.)

With 25/25 set on the remaining engine I certainly could not climb and indeed could not even maintain 5,300' (circuit height HWB) and had to fly the long way round the ranges back to Kerema. The aircraft was empty except for around 75 to 100 kg of coffee beans in bags (and mein Gott but did that smell beautiful!!:D:ok:) and about half tanks of fuel.

From memory, I finally found I could hold just under 4,000' at about 95KIAS:ooh:.
Mind you, this was 25 years ago.:hmm:

Edited to add; The Islander I flew in the above mentioned incident was indeed ISM. It was then owned by the Catholic diocese of Kerema,and flown by Simbu Aviation Pilots.

This is a sad outcome.
Not sure if I have it right but pilot survived initial event only to pass while waiting someone/anyone to stop sitting on their hands.
Understand that SAR may well not exist up there, but even mobilising police/armed forces...

Most likely weather prevented accessing the site. Cloud. Not anyone "sitting on their hands".

It is self evident to all pilots in PNG that if they go into the trees in mountainous terrain, and there is plenty of that all over the country, it could be several days until they are found. If at all. And it's not through the lack of rescue options either. They are still finding planes that went missing in WW2, the jungle has a habit of swallowing you up and leaving very little or no sign of your unfortunate visitation. And history also shows, don't expect your ELT beacon to be of much use to the rescue effort.

Terrible news. Even worse knowing that the pilot survived initially only to succumb later.

How do we know for sure that he is deceased if rescuers have not been able to reach him?

Such a tough and unforgiving environment up there... It is hard for those in the Western world to understand just how tough if you haven't experienced it first hand.

AIC confirms pilot death | Loop PNG

Looks like the confirmation came from a team that rappelled in to the site yesterday morning.

RIP

RIP Wantok.

RIP Tongy. Miss you and will never forget you brother.

Very very sad outcome.
Sadly that can't be changed. The second to last paragraph in the above link that talks about 'no blame' and 'recommendations' whilst world standard you would hope that eventually it brings about a legislated response and prescribed course of action.
Bamahuta draiva bilong balus.

so the crash happened on the 23rd . The pilot is injured such that he cant reach his survival gear and now he is dead. How surprising

I had a total of over 20 plus years in Png . With every opportunity its turned into a disgusting disgrace of a place. Im happily married to a wonderfull png woman with 6 children. i would not urinate on what you call a government if it were on fire .

The bed wetters and the political police will delete this but some will see .... Oh dear

bar me i dont want a bar of the drop kick nonsense u see from troppo

Post 1975 that is. The old timers who remember pre 1975 say it was a lovely place back then.

Very sad state of affairs.

Nothing will be learnt from this..

I would be interested to know the time line or events from when the Islander crashed to the arrival the Pacific Helicopter and repealing Team from PJV.

Guess NCA will be getting another new PAC750 out of it.

greg47 knows the score

I’m sick and tired of reading what a wonderful place PNG was in the good old days. I’m sure it was - but it’s not anymore. I did 9 years there and left in disgust. greg47’s post says it all!

Sources report a Manolos medevac helicopter in LAE was dispatched 30 minutes after the accident. The cloud base in the area was 6000' and couldn't get to the crash site due weather.
The following day part of the wreckage was briefly sighed through a small break in the cloud but it wasn't possible to get to the crash site so a ground crew was dropped off at 5000' and they made their way on foot through very difficult terrain.
The following day the weather had improved and the Pacific Helicopter was able to deliver rescue personnel by rope where the pilot was found to be deceased. The ground crew dropped off the previous day had not been able to get to the crash site due terrain.

No wrong. I can assure you they certainly were not there. The only chopper at Nadzab at lunch on Saturday was a blue 406. That departed not long after in the opposite direction towards Watut.
There was talk that it did a run up to the general area on Sunday morning for a wee look. But came back reporting nothing found.

It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that the Hevilift chopper turned up. By which fairly late in the afternoon weather became a factor and they had to defer till Monday morning.

NCA made some runs up to the area Saturday afternoon and located a possible location. They again went up Sunday morning and left a team at the nearest strip to attempt to reach the site by foot. Ultimately they couldn't reach it.

Tuesday morning a Porgera rescue team member rapelled to the wreckage and declared our fellow aviator deceased.

A sad sad few days for PNG aviators.
Blue sky's forever brother.