Heavylift crash
 

Have heard from aviation friends in Moresby that a Hevilift Twotter headed to Kokoda with 8 pob crashed 30 nm off Moresby - 4 dead including the two pilots, 3 injured and 1 still missing.

Very sad news indeed

Sad News - Heavylift crash
 

A Hevilift Twin Otter is down sadly. :\

HEVILIFT. (Previously Regional Air)

Very sad. Good company with good aircraft and good training. It'll be interesting to find out what happened.

Heavylift Crash?
 

Is Hevilift a follow-on company from HeavyLift CA, please?

No it's not.

The old Hevilift doesn't exist. Hevilift was taken over in 2004 by Regional Air. I can say Without reservation that when I was with Regional/Hevilift, the company had a better attitude toward maintenance, training and general operational safety than the major Australian airlines that I've worked for since, including a jet operator. I trusted these guys with my life. There was no better operator in PNG.

I've also worked with Bill Seneka from the Accident Investigation Commission, who has been quoted as saying that weather was a contributing factor.

Good to see the mods removed all the posts about who the crew was and the (possible?) negativity about the company. I also flew for the company in a previous life and have a vested interest in this accident. Couldn't agree more with psycho joe's comments.

Exactly where did the aircraft crash, Mt Lawes or up in the Owen Stanley's?

Another sad event
Was this a IFR or VFR flight

This follows 2 fatal helicopter accidents since 2011. Lost some former colleagues and friends in those accidents.

Captain was a good man. Will miss him. If anyone has details of funeral proceedings please PM.

R.I.P old buddy.

Well done to the New Zealand & PNG Soldiers

RIP
R W

NZ soldiers help plane crash survivors | Stuff.co.nz

New Zealand soldiers on a secret jungle training mission in Papua New Guinea have played a key role in rescuing survivors from a fatal plane crash on Saturday.
A Papua New Guinean pilot, her Australian co-pilot and two other PNG nationals died when a Twin Otter owned by third-level airline HeviLift crashed into the mountainside on Mount Lawes at Laloki as it was flying toward the capital, Port Moresby.
Five PNG nationals survived.
The PNG Post-Courier reported today that the critically injured were helped by New Zealand soldiers.
They had been conducting a joint training exercise with the PNG Defence Forces at Goldie River Army Training Barracks, just below the mountain.
"Because of the secret nature of the joint PNG-New Zealand defence forces training exercise on Saturday, the media was told not to get photographs of the soldiers bringing out the injured from the wreckage," the Post-Courier reported.
A soldier said they were conducting their training in bush under the mountain when they heard a loud bang at around 9.30am.
"The top of the mountain was covered in mist and we could not see anything, so we called Jackson Airport and they told us that there was a (plane) crash," a soldier said.
"We rushed to the site with our medics, both from PNG and New Zealand Army, and we were able to rescue the six passengers.
"One died soon after.The newspaper said the soldiers would only talk so long as they were not named.
"Our hierarchy confirmed that there was a crash and we were directed to provide assistance and rescue those on board the ill-fated plane," one soldier said.
Because of the thick fog, vegetation and the rugged terrain on the mountain top the helicopter could not land near the crash site so they had to use their four-wheel drive vehicles and then make it on foot to the crash site, which is about a three-hour walk for an ordinary person.
For the soldiers, it was less than an hour.The New Zealand Defence Force has made no comment on the incident.
New Zealand forces frequently exercise in PNG and their presence is usually widely publicised.

It is so sad that crew should lose their lives on a non-threatning training mission,

Heavylift crash
 

..........

Radix, it appears daikilo has only read the first paragraph above :ugh:

Any news on who the captain was?

I believe his initials are "L R".
A friendly sound professional when I knew him.
R.I.P. mate.

212bm

L R
 

Unbelievable if it is the "LR" I know. Survived a Helio-Courier engine failure in the Tadji area early 70s, trained him in Air Niugini late 70s before he went to East/West late 70s. Been with Hevilift last 15yrs. I figured the accident aircraft for Yongai via the Gap. Somebody tell me otherwise??????

Unfortunately I think it's the same LR mate.

Last week a local newspaper reported that the aircraft had a CVR and forward looking camera fitted to it, hopefully these devices will provide some valuable information to the investigators to help understand what may have caused the accident.

From a long time PNG [still] pilot:

Have a look at the PNG AIC's website, seems like they have been busy with very little government financial support again.......................

Especially considering that aviation accidents in PNG are a regular occurrence which generally result in fatalities.

Come on, this government organisation requires continuous ongoing funding together with CASA PNG to attract and retain suitable qualified personnel. Is PNG an ICAO compliant state??? If so about time ICAO had a closer look. Imagine an overflying 400 seat jet crashing in PNG in the wee hours of the morning in the Owen Stanley's or anywhere else, who's going to do the SAR let alone the rescue and subsequent investigation? It's a real possibility!

Whilst I agree with a lot of what you are saying Duck, I do have trouble visualising a 400 seat aircraft crashing into the Owen Stanley's.

Somehow I would imagine its driftdown would be higher than even Mt Victoria.

But your point is still valid.

Here's an article from the PNGLoop website about the crash.

Plane crash warning failed: report | PNG Loop | PNG online news and classifieds



"The preliminary report into the Twin Otter crash at Mt Lawes in which four people died has revealed that a warning system did not sound off before impact.

This was revealed by the Air Crash Investigation Commission when it released the report today.

Both pilots of the aircraft and two passengers died in the crash on Sept 20th 2014 just before landing at Jackson Airport in Port Moresby.

The preliminary report was presented by AIC Chief Executive Officer David Inau, technical adviser Peter White, and AIC commissioners.

Inau said from the outset that the preliminary report into aviation occurrences is factual and does not contain analysis, conclusions or recommendations.

The report was made following data downloaded from recording devices on board the aircraft.

It was presented to the media on the flight details of the Twin Otter, named Kilo Sierra Foxtrot, that left Woitape in Goilala on the morning of Sept 20th at 9:16am with two crew and seven passengers on a charter flight.

The weather in Woitape was fine however in Port Moresby it was poor, with low cloud cover and rain.

As it approached Port Moresby, Air Traffic Control cleared the flight crew to descend while maintaining visual separation from the terrain at the same time. This was repeated as they descended.

When the aircraft was within 10 nautical miles of the airport, the pilot contacted the tower and mentioned the Instrument Landing System (ILS) but he did not request a discontinuation of the visual approach and he did not request radar vectors to position the aircraft for the Instrument Landing System.

Responding, the tower did not mention the ILS and repeated the clearance to make a visual approach. The clearance was read back by the pilot and soon afterwards, the aircraft struck Mt Lawes.

The Twin Otter was fiited with an ‘Enhanced Ground Proximity Warninig System’ (EGPWS) and preliminary indications from the cockpit voice recording are that aural warnings which are expected to go off from this equipment did not sound before the impact.

Inau said that a full and thorough investigation into the tragic incident will be conducted. This he said is expected to take months.

He thanked the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for assisting in downloading the information and presenting it to the AIC.

He also paid respects to the lives lost on the tragic morning."

The report is on the PNG AIC website. For anyone who has flown in PNG for a considerable amount of time would be able to quickly work out what caused this accident from the report.

I knew the Captain reasonably well and I am deeply saddened that his life ended this way. Totally Avoidable - he should have know better! The business of ATC issuing a visual approach clearance to an aircraft when they know fully that the conditions aren't suitable for a visual approach is not reasonable in my opinion. To effectively pass on all responsibility to the PIC when ATC are fully aware that the conditions don't meet the criteria to do a visual approach is not what I would consider as being appropriate given the circumstances. Fair enough the PIC should have rejected the clearance and demanded something more suitable, however to be offered something unworkable given the conditions is not right in my opinion.

PNG ASL and Hevilift need to look seriously at how effective their Safety Management Systems are as a result of this accident, obviously they didn't achieve their desired outcome in this case.

Duck,I think you meant to say "Totally Avoidable" ,anyway that's the way I would read it..I flew extensively In PNG over 40 years ago ..long before the invention of GPWS let alone EGPWS systems, it seems to me and in fact I have been told that some Pilots are in the habit of disabling the system,to avoid nuisance warnings when operating into some of the more ....shall we say...."Sporting" Airstrips ...One cannot help but wonder if this was the Habit of the accident crew....particularly the Capt. If so ....... Well ...it's just a theory.

Typo error, thanks Hugh and you are correct about pilots disabling GPWS equipment to avoid hearing the warnings. I'm sure it would be a breach of any companies SOPs to do so, not to mention the regulations.

Thinking latteraly ,SOPs if they are Indeed written for this type of equipment should perhaps reflect the unique nature of PNG bush flying. It seems the undesirability of nuisance warnings should be acknowledged,and a procedure that formalises the deactivation of GPWS under strict conditions be promalgated.

Wether or not this proves to be part of the causal chain in this accident only a full investigation will determine. The essential reality is that lessons be learned.

CFIT events are always perplexing,and here it seems none more so than in this accident.

Is there any reason why they haven't released the crews names?
Dynabolt

DynaBolt the names have been released, most knew within a few hours who were the pilots, nothing secret squirrel there. Actually on a Facebook specific site there was a memorial post for the National FO.
Guess out of respect. Something missing in a lot of people these days.

What the f..k difference would SMS make?????
Why not simply read understand and operate BY THE RULES.
How many lives have been lost with people either operating outside the parameters set out in flight manuals and/or disregarding the rules.
I am not inferring this occurred in the above mentioned flight. Just had a guts full of all this SMS Quality whatever you want to call it industry. Rant over.

It's all very well to say that pilots should operate by the rules, but when you have people with a commercial interest getting into the act with instructions to pilots to trip warning breakers so as not to upset passengers (who can hear EGPWS) or worse, interfering via maintenance so that the equipment conveniently becomes unserviceable, what to do?

This has happened in PNG in the past. I had more than one argument over this very thing a few years ago and quit rather than be complicit in allowing it.

Not just EGPWS but such basic requirements as current GPS data bases and TAWS does not get updated. A bit like those infamous last words from the Mexicans just before they drilled in ("shut up Gringo") one classic argument I recall, the guy said - in defence of GPS data bases over 10 years out of date - "the mountains don't move".

Not saying that this caused this particular accident, but such is the culture in that part of the world.

SMS, CRM and all the rest of it?
 

Its the way of the world now, just need to make sure it's not an all smoke and mirrors system that has only been implemented to appease the regulator and some clients, and has absolutely no resemblance of what's going on outside the office.

This accident has all the hallmarks of a classic CFIT that should have never happened....