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Air Niugini Aircraft crash, Truk Lagoon

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Air Niugini Aircraft crash, Truk Lagoon

Old 17th Oct 2018, 04:39
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what is normally "waterproof" may not be waterproof after an abnormal event, which event is the reason for accessing the data.
A crash may be abnormal but certainly not unplanned for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_recorder

Have a read.
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Old 24th Oct 2018, 21:50
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One survivor’s firsthand account of the crash of Air Niugini PX 073

By Bill Jaynes


The Kaselehlie Press

October 10, 2018

FSM—On Friday morning, September 28, Air Niugini flight PX 073 crash landed in the lagoon short of the runway in Chuuk. I was aboard. It was the worst experience in my life but I am glad to be alive, thanks in large part to Chuukese locals who risked their own lives to save us passengers.

“I” is a very strange letter when it stands alone in a news article. “I”’m not sure I know how to handle that particular letter as a journalist but then “I”’ve never been involved in a plane crash before. “I” still don’t know how to handle that fact, neither in my life nor in this article. Still, “I” know, and have heard from many, that despite the fact that my face and voice were all over international news for almost a week, people will want to hear from me, though “I” most certainly was not the only passenger aboard nor even close to the most significant. I just ended up being one of the most visible. It’s such a strange situation in so many ways and I’m not sure I know how to handle it. Maybe I never will.

From the Top

I’ll start at the beginning.

The Indonesian government, who recently reached out to the FSM after many years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, invited me and a few other Pacific Islands journalists for an informational tour of their country. I was heading to Indonesia when I boarded Air Niugini, flight PX 073 on the morning of September 28 after finally having received my flight arrangements only a day and a half earlier.

I was the last passenger through the security checkpoint before they said it would close. The flight crew started arriving ten to fifteen minutes later. The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:50 but at that time, boarding hadn’t even begun.

Once aboard, my seat, 24F on the right side of the rear of the plane was comfortable and the flight attendants were courteous and pleasant. The safety briefing was pretty much like every safety briefing I’ve ever heard with one variance from my experience. Instead of instructing passengers on how to use the exit doors, the briefing said that a crew member would open the doors in the event of an emergency. I thought that was odd at the time but didn’t think much more of it.

Descent begins

When one of the cockpit crew members made the announcement that we were beginning our descent into Chuuk, the flight attendants immediately had the passengers open their window shades, fasten seatbelts and put seats in the upright position. It seemed quite a bit early as there was still 25 minutes left in the flight at that point but it took nothing to comply.

As the Chuuk lagoon islands began to appear among aqua sea set against blue sky and white fluffy clouds, I began to search the lagoon for white caps. The evening before my flight a friend posted a weather report for Chuuk on Facebook that indicated a low pressure system with possible cyclonic activity so I was vigilant. It carried a travel advisory for boaters. I don’t know what I thought I’d do if I saw white caps but the lagoon was calm so I relaxed into the descent.

As we approached the runway, ominous grey clouds appeared and I watched the vapor trails coming off of the wing. I could clearly see the lagoon islands in the distance and spotted the Truk Stop dock as we continued to descend, and descend and descend. I had just thought that we were much lower over the water than on any of my many previous landings in Chuuk when the left wing dipped a little bit as, in my experience sometimes happens as pilots adjust to cross winds on approach to the runway.

Suddenly there was impact, an extremely hard impact, and an amazingly quick stop. My first thought was that we had just experienced the hardest landing and fastest braking I’d ever experienced on any runway but I couldn’t reconcile the rending, tearing sounds in my mind. I was stunned and looked around. When I saw a hole in the other side of the plane across the aisle, I knew we hadn’t made the runway. Water was coming in fast, rushing from the nose of the plane toward the rear. The water initially ran out through the hole but very quickly water also started coming in from there as well.

Some have said that there was an announcement to “brace” before the impact came, but if there was, I never heard it or if I did hear it, it was not sufficient for me to have understood that we had been about to crash land and I cleared it from my memory. The cockpit recorder will tell that part of the story.

Exit stage left

I reached under my seat for a life preserver but could not find one. As I got up from my seat and started walking in what was then thigh deep water, deeper on those people who are not 6’4” tall, there was pandemonium. Some passengers were trying to retrieve their bags from the overhead compartments, an absolute no no during an emergency evacuation as it slows evacuation. Some passengers scrambled over the tops of the seats. Flight attendants in my section of the plane were screaming for people to calm down. It wasn’t working. Meanwhile the attendants were running back and forth in the aisles, pushing passengers out of the way. I checked under three other seats on my way out but still could not find a life preserver. I can’t speak to the experience of others but I was not the only passenger who did not have a life preserver when we went out the exit.

A young man of Asian descent who was behind me as I tried to walk toward the exit while making way for passengers who were more injured than I began to push hard. I turned around and grabbed his shoulders. Making eye contact with him I asked him to calm down. I told him that we would get out but only if we did it calmly. He did calm down, though I’m not sure if he actually understood my words.

By the time I arrived at the exit door, the pathway was clear. I stepped out onto the wing where the water was approximately waist deep. A raft was waiting there and people were jumping into it. I stood aside so that others could get in first. Someone finally yelled at me to get into the raft and I complied. As two passengers I didn’t identify carried a Chinese man, who I later learned had a broken pelvis, to the raft, a female Chuukese passenger turned to me and asked in a panicked voice if she had her life preserver on correctly. After it inflated, she was having a hard time breathing as it pushed her head backward. Others experienced the same problem and none of us could figure out how to let a bit of air out of them to give them some relief. Another man in the raft who had passed me as I stood on the wing seemed to have a broken forearm.

Chuukese heroes

As I lay on the bottom of the raft wondering what would happen next and wondering what had happened to my passport that had been in my shirt pocket, I looked at the plane which at the time was only half submerged. I incorrectly thought that we were in shallow water and that during the recovery effort, after we were all safe, someone would be able to retrieve all of my camera gear and laptop from the overhead baggage compartment in working order. I had no idea that we were in approximately 90 feet of water and that the plane was in danger of sinking at any time. Had I known, I may easily have been one of those who panicked. I didn’t have time to notice that the plane was sinking because within no more than two minutes of getting into the raft, a boat driven by a local who had seen the crash nudged the raft.

People helped the very injured man into the boat, and again, I stood back knowing that the raft would keep me safe and that others needed to be evacuated more quickly than I. By that time there were several boats surrounding the plane. I could have taken another boat but the boat driver would not take no for an answer and I boarded as the last passenger aboard that boat.

I will never forget the efforts of the Chuukese locals who, either foolishly, or bravely immediately rushed out to the downed plane to help get us safely to shore. A week and a half later, I still get tears of gratitude in my eyes whenever I think of their selflessness and bravery, and I have thought of it many times every day since the morning of Friday, September 28.

Unfortunately, since that time, some have tried to make an issue of whether or not Chuukese locals or US Navy Seabees were the first to arrive on the scene. Quite frankly, from videos I later saw, I believe it was the Seabees who were there first but if so it was only by moments. I don’t know. I never saw them. I quite frankly, don’t care. All of the responders were heroes and calling one group of responders heroes does not at all minimize the heroics of another group. For me, on that day, it was Chuukese locals who whisked a boat load of wet and frightened passengers, me included, to the Transco dock in Weno.

Passenger heroes

Since we are on the subject of heroes, now would be the time to talk about two passenger heroes I will never forget. One is Adam Milburn, an Australian who currently lives in Pohnpei. He will not call himself a hero but I watched his calm demeanor as he assisted passengers through the exit door. In the video of the US Navy response to the crash, Mr. Milburn is the man in the blue wind breaker, calmly standing on the wing at the exit door helping passengers out. He also re-entered the plane to help make sure that there were no passengers left aboard but by then, the tail section of the plane was head high underwater. Only after he did that did he decide to go ahead and grab his own bag from the baggage compartment. It had not been safe to do so while passengers were evacuating.

I didn’t learn of another hero until later in the day when I met Rodney Nogi of Papua New Guinea at the Truk Stop hotel where Air Niugini had placed some of the passengers. He very quietly and reluctantly told me that he had been the one to open the exit door when flight attendants didn’t do so. He mentioned that he also mobilized and inflated the raft from that door. Milburn later told me that when he got onto the wing, the raft had been mobilized and that it had been Nogi who had done it and who also made sure that it stayed where it could be useful and didn’t float away. Nogi said that he had been to a fisheries university where he had been taught sea rescue techniques and those techniques helped him.

On that Friday evening he was humble and unassuming about his role though that could have been because he was sharing a table with a man 33 years his senior. We’ve all gone through changes since that day and if a story in PNG’s The National newspaper is accurate, he is now saying that Air Niugini owes him a pat on the back. I don’t know if Air Niugini will ever give him that pat on the back but I certainly will.

Efficient medical response

Once at the Transco dock, I could hear sirens in the distance. They took a while to get there but that was a function of the roads in that area and of the snarled traffic. As far as I am concerned, the response was immediate. I used the time to call my wife as I always do when I land in Chuuk, the last place where my FSMTC cell phone will usually work on my travels. My wife was effervescent when she heard my voice. She hadn’t yet heard the news. I was glad to be able to tell her that I had survived before she heard that the plane had crashed.

On a triage basis, ambulances whisked passengers to the Chuuk State Hospital. I didn’t feel I needed to go but didn’t know where else to go so took the free ride in the ambulance to the hospital. The scene there was truly incredible to watch in every positive way I can think to describe it. Temporary cots had been placed in the waiting room and the place was a flurry of activity as doctors, nurses and others attended to passengers. Again, I have nothing but good things to say about the hospital response in Chuuk. I’ll be honest and admit that I was pleasantly surprised to see it and experience it.

As I nearly always do during times of stress, I laughed and joked with those who were able and inquired about the health of every passenger I met even if they couldn’t understand me, even if just to give a questioning “thumbs up”. I met and talked to passengers from Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Chuuk, Australia, the United States, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, all with various levels of injury and all in various states of shock. Outside the hospital I gave an interview with my first impressions which, I was told ran on television, radio and newspapers around the world on that day. I was NOT the only passenger aboard. I wasn’t even close to the most significant. I did end up being one of the most visible because of that interview and on that basis alone, I assume.

Human after all

Any other good journalist would have remembered that he had a cell phone in his pocket, albeit underwater, and would have tried to snap photos or take video. It never even occurred to me. I almost never use my cell phone for news purposes and it rarely crosses my mind even for personal purposes. I almost always shoot with DSLRs but those are now gone.

I didn’t speak with the pilots or crew at the hospital nor at the airport as they were getting ready to leave on Saturday morning’s rescue flight to Port Moresby. As a human and not a journalist, I found myself unable to even look at them, much less speak to them. I regret that lost opportunity, especially after I confirmed with US Navy Seabees that the rumor spread by a passenger that the cockpit crew was the first off the plane was completely false. The members of the cockpit crew were in fact, nearly the last off the plane and were hesitant to leave even then.

At the Truk Stop Hotel where some of us were placed, I found it nearly impossible to be alone for any period of time. I only went to my room when there was no one left awake to talk to. I listened to eyewitness accounts from passengers, the US Navy Seabees crew who saw the plane go down, and everyone who had an opinion to share. Where there were rumors, and there were many, I spent time during the next few days trying to substantiate them with proper authorities and eyewitnesses rather than relying on second hand information. Most of the rumors were complete fabrications.

Home again

After a series of miscommunications with Air Niugini, I finally arrived home in Pohnpei on Monday, October 1 aboard United Airlines flight UA 155 having entirely missed the purpose for my trip and probably having mashed the armrests of my seat as we landed smoothly in text book fashion.

Since I carried only a small plastic bag containing two shirts I’d bought in Chuuk, and a pair of zorries, I was one of the first through the exit door at the Pohnpei International Airport where my wife waited for me. I had already cried on seeing Pohnpei for the first time since my plane went down in the Chuuk lagoon as I have done many times since. But when I saw my wife I was a goner and the waterworks flowed again freely as we hugged each other tightly in the airport.

We went to Joy Restaurant for lunch after which she dropped me at the office where I immediately began responding to emails and trying to correct erroneous news reports I had not been able to see in Chuuk where for two days, I had little to no internet access.

That afternoon I learned that the body of Eko Cahyanto Singgih had been found on board the wreckage of the fuselage that had finally been located 90 to 100 feet below the surface of the water. The young man had been returning to his home in Indonesia after having worked as a fisherman aboard a Luen Thai fishing vessel. I had earlier learned that he had been sitting only a couple of rows in front of me. A diver from Pohnpei told me that he had recovered his body only two rows in front of where I had been sitting. We may never know precisely what happened to him but it haunts me in my quiet moments to think that I may have walked by him without seeing him as I was escaping the plane.

Cause of crash and investigation

Many people have asked me my opinion about what caused the water landing. I do have a strong opinion about that based on my observations. At no time did I feel a sudden drop indicating loss of lift. There was just that one small dip of the left wing and then we were down. I am not a pilot in any way shape or form but as a passenger, my opinion is that the pilot came down at the wrong vertical angle of approach and was far too low. I believe that, realizing that error, he then did the best he could do in a very bad situation. Because he landed in the water instead of trying to pull up and try again, I believe he averted a worse tragedy that would have resulted in many more deaths had he hit the headwall at the beginning of the runway.

I’m told that the pilot said that it was raining so hard that his windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with it, and that the visibility was low. My observations do not bear that out. It was not raining when passengers were evacuating and visibility, at least at water level was fine as all of the photos I have seen of the response show.

FAA inspectors have confirmed that all runway strobes were properly working at the time.

All of the various recording tools aboard the aircraft have now been recovered. As of this writing, the chips in the black box are still being dried at a lab in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea so data has not yet been recovered for analysis. FSM Investigator-in-Charge, Master Halbert is on the scene in Port Moresby. He has said that the FSM anticipates having its preliminary report out by the end of the month. Meanwhile, he will be releasing press releases as needed through The Kaselehlie Press. Those can be found at The Kaselehlie Press Facebook page, our easiest way of posting those press releases quickly. As of today, there have been six.

Investigatory arms of the FSM, the United States, and Papua New Guinea are involved in the investigation of the circumstances surrounding the crash.

I cannot speak to whether or not Air Niugini has contacted other passengers regarding compensation arrangements. As of today, I have had no contact from them since I left Chuuk for Pohnpei.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 00:12
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Thanks to Bill Jaynes' eye witness account (seated in 24F and observing the Truk Stop dock out of his window on approach) I think that it is now pretty clear that this was indeed an undershoot for RWY04.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 02:41
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Indeed - glad someone finally confirmed both their seat position (right side) and the view of the hotel (right side).
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 08:03
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Originally Posted by pattern_is_full
Indeed - glad someone finally confirmed both their seat position (right side) and the view of the hotel (right side).
Except that he didn't:

Originally Posted by MickG0105
seated in 24F and observing the Truk Stop dock out of his window on approach
That's a misquote. Read the article again.

He confirmed he was on the RHS of the aircraft in 24F. We infer that he was therefore looking at the coastline through a window on his side of the aircraft (and that may well be correct), but he didn't actually say that.

It's immensely frustrating that, nearly a month after the accident, we still haven't seen or heard:

a) results from the FDR/CVR/EGPWS analysis
b) eyewitness testimony from either of the pilots
c) eyewitness testimony from anyone on the ground who saw the aircraft as it hit the water

Pending the interim report (due in a week or so), we're still at the speculation stage.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 10:04
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The eyewitness gives an excellent account of what happened from his perspective. However his impression of good visibility is almost certainly different from the view through the cockpit windows. As an experienced captain on type I am struck by the similarity to the Lion Air crash in Bali and indeed the WestJet near miss at St Maarten. On a non precision approach if you lose sight of the runway or the approach becomes unstable it should be an immediate go-around. However this is a manoeuvre that for many pilots is quite rare outside the simulator. I may not be typical but cannot remember performing a go-around below minimum more than a couple of times in the last ten years and those were in tailwind going out of limit situations, so not much startle effect. On the 737 when you go-around you push the Toga buttons and then need to advance the thrust levers. If you are a bit slow remembering the last bit then the aircraft will rapidly lose energy and whilst raising the nose may reduce the sink rate I could imagine a scenario similar to the one described at Truk.

Last edited by lederhosen; 25th Oct 2018 at 12:10.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 12:04
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Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
That's a misquote.
It's not a "quote" so it can't be a misquote.

Look at a seating plan for a B737-800, look at where 24F is located, look at where the aircraft came to rest in Chuuk Lagoon, draw a line from 24F to the Truk Stop dock, apply some basic geometry and common sense. If the aircraft was not on an approach to RWY04 but was instead overshooting RWY22 the only way that a passenger in 24F could see the Truk Stop dock on descent would be if they had X-ray vision. There's a marked difference between a reasoned conclusion and speculation.

Last edited by MickG0105; 25th Oct 2018 at 12:05. Reason: Spelling
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 12:29
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He very carefully describes the touchdown also. It’s clear this was not on a runway.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 14:36
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Originally Posted by Sailvi767
He very carefully describes the touchdown also. It’s clear this was not on a runway.
He was too careful in his descriptions, not what I would expect from a traumatic experience.

I will await the investigation findings
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 16:59
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Originally Posted by lomapaseo
He was too careful in his descriptions, not what I would expect from a traumatic experience.
And equally there are eyewitnesses who describe more than one impact. Here's one:

When his Air Niugini flight crashed into the waters of a lagoon on Weno island in Chuuk state Friday morning, Dr. Victor Wasson said, "The first thing in my mind was, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.'"

His next thought was, "I got to get the hell out of here."

Wasson was seated on the right side of the plane, near the wing when, he believes, the plane struck the end of the runway at Chuuk International Airport.

"We had more than one impact," said Wasson, who described "one big thud" and "then the second one, and then we stopped."

"It's highly likely that the back part of the plane hit the edge of the rocks at the end of the runway," he said.

Seconds before the plane hit the water, Wasson said one of the flight attendants "shouted out, 'Brace for impact!' Before she finished her sentence, we hit the water." He said the plane crashed "about 150 meters from the rocks."

Wasson is a psychiatrist at Pohnpei State Hospital and the national psychiatrist for the government of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Arguing about which eyewitness to believe simply illustrates why we have flight recorders.
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 19:01
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Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
And equally there are eyewitnesses who describe more than one impact. Here's one:



Arguing about which eyewitness to believe simply illustrates why we have flight recorders.
or mechanical pathologists
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Old 25th Oct 2018, 22:39
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-...plane/10424356

Aussie 'hero' says he evacuated passengers from crashed plane after crew panicked

7.30

By Michael Atkin and Nadia Daly

An Australian man who evacuated passengers from a sinking Boeing 737 after it crash-landed in Micronesia last month claims some of the Air Niugini crew panicked and left passengers to escape by themselves.

An Indonesian man died in the crash despite Air Niugini initially announcing all 47 passengers and crew were safely evacuated.

It took a full day before the airline announced one passenger was missing and the body of Eko Cahyanto Singgih was later found by US Navy divers.

The cause of the crash is currently being investigated by the Federated States of Micronesia with support from the Papua New Guinea and USA governments, with a preliminary report expected by the end of the month.

Adam Milburn, a former Australian Navy clearance diver who lives in Micronesia, was on board flight PX 73 when it undershot the runway by 145 metres, landing in Chuuk Lagoon.

He has been described as "heroic" for getting passengers to safety.

He told 7.30 he was shocked when he realised the plane was in the water.

"I was like everyone, kind of floundering. 'How did we get here? What's happening? What are we doing right now in a plane that's floating on the water?'" he said.

Mr Milburn said that after the crash the crew yelled at passengers to remain seated.

"They were shouting, and I think I would have been in their situation as well. There was panic in their voices, you could hear the panic," he said.

He said he waited in his seat, but there were no further instructions so he grabbed his life jacket and helped others before heading to the exit.

"I remember I stepped out onto the wing and there was a gentleman there [another passenger] on his own, from memory, and he had the life raft but it hadn't been deployed," Mr Milburn said.

"He said, 'Can you find the inflation cord? I can't find the inflation cord.' So we were able to find the flap and inflate the life raft."

Mr Milburn said the pair then evacuated most of the 35 passengers who were on board, without crew assistance.

Local fishermen arrived with a flotilla of boats to help ferry the passengers to shore.

Mr Milburn said most passengers had head and neck injuries from hitting the front of their seat, and one was unconscious.

"The last two passengers that I remember were quite incapacitated, so then there was a challenge about trying to keep their head out of the water because by that stage there was probably water up to knees or waist," he said.

Mr Milburn said he did not see a cabin crew member do a headcount or check names against a flight manifest, but admits that does not mean it did not happen.

"I'm not sure of what the procedures should or shouldn't have been, but it was chaotic. It would have been really difficult to manage that," he said.

A group of sailors with the US Navy, who had been training nearby, were also key to the rescue, and Mr Milburn re-entered the sinking plane to help them search for survivors.

One Navy diver swam through the aircraft's interior to inspect it before they decided it was too dangerous and exited the plane.

'Embarrassed to be called a hero'

Mr Milburn said he had been replaying in his mind whether he could have done more to save the Indonesian man who died.

"If I'd just walked down there and got wet up to my shoulders and just felt around, perhaps I would have felt him and then you could have called for help, but hindsight is a great thing," he said.

"[His death] was hard to take. I was hoping beyond hope he was going to turn up somewhere.

"I literally touched everyone that came out the exit door on the left-hand wing, either assisted them into the life raft or physically carried them into the life raft, so no one was coming out and falling off the wing and drowning, I'm absolutely confident of that."

American journalist Bill Jaynes, editor of local paper the Kaselehlie Press, was on the flight and praised Mr Milburn for his actions.

"I know Adam and I know he would be the last person to call himself anything like a hero, [but] considering there was a plane in the water I would call it heroic," Jaynes said.

"Meanwhile flight attendants, in my section at any rate, were panicking and running up and down the aisles … and screaming for us to all calm down, which of course had the opposite effect.

"[Adam] was very calm throughout the whole situation. I can't recall if he actually took my hand as I stepped out of the plane or not. I just remember his demeanour.

"I remember him being very calm, which seemed to be a bit contagious, and other people kind of grabbed on to that."

Mr Milburn said he was "a bit embarrassed to be called a hero, because I don't think there was anything particularly heroic in what I did".

"I think one of the things that I came away from the crash with, just a real sense of optimism about humanity and human nature," he said.

Mr Milburn's wife Lauren was not on board but said she was concerned to hear his account of the evacuation.

"I still can't understand why it was my husband that was deploying the life raft and helping passengers into the life raft," she said.

"It does make you wonder what was going on in the aircraft."

Aviation consultant Neil Hansford said the accident raised serious questions.

"There is enough rafts and life jackets and everything else for it to have been handled without the intervention of the islanders, but thank God the islanders were there," he said.

"There was only 35 passengers."

Investigation underway

There are conflicting reports about weather conditions before the plane crashed. Air Niugini has said there was heavy rain, which caused poor visibility.

Investigators have access to information about the flight's final moments after the data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered.

Mr Hansford believes that will be a central part of the crash investigation, including whether pilot error was a factor.

"He only dropped it into the lagoon 145 metres short of the runway, so he was too low for a very long time and I think what was probably playing on his mind is, he only had 6,000 feet of runway and maybe he was realising he didn't know the condition," he said.

The Milburn family have been strong supporters of Air Niugini but they have decided to stop flying with the airline for now.

Ms Milburn said they are looking for answers about what went wrong.

"We're very keen, just personally, to understand what happened, to make sense of what happened, but also then for us to be able to make decisions about flying and who we fly with and who we feel comfortable flying with," she said.

"We're optimistic and hopeful that we get some good learning and some good information out of the investigation."

Mr Milburn added that he would like to see Air Niugini work hard to improve safety.

"What I'd like to see is a clear demonstration of what steps they're going to take to ensure that doesn't happen again," he said.

It is the first fatal accident in the 45-year history of Air Niugini, which had previously had a good safety record.

Air Niugini did not respond to 7.30's questions.

But in a public statement on October 5, the deputy chairman of the Air Niugini board, Andrew Nui, thanked local islanders and the US Navy team who helped passengers and crew.

"Their courage and quick thinking helped save lives and our thanks and gratitude goes out to all of them," he said.
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 14:05
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From Avherald,
On Oct 26th 2018 Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Board (PNGAIB), having been delegated the investigation by Micronesia, released their preliminary report stating the aircraft "impacted the water of Chuuk Lagoon about 1,500 ft (460 m) short of the runway 04 threshold, during its approach to runway 04 at Chuuk International Airport. As the aircraft settled in the water, it turned clockwise through 210 degrees and drifted 460 ft (140 m) south east of the runway 04 extended centreline, with the nose of the aircraft pointing about 265 deg."
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 14:59
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Reading the Milburns' comments above all I can say is that if I stopped flying with every airline which has had an accident, I guess I wouldn't be doing much flying today! I appreciate that accidents can be attributed to poor training etc., but many more can be attributed to a multitude of other causes which can happen to any airline. One fatality in 45 years is pretty good going and it would certainly not put me off flying with Air Niugini today.
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 15:17
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Now confirmed, aircraft crashed short of the runway. Was approaching 04.

http://www.aic.gov.pg/pdf/PreRpts/TC...0P2-PXE%29.pdf
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 16:18
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Stunning photo from the report:


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Old 26th Oct 2018, 18:43
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The report indicates that all of the seriously injured passangers (plus the one fatality) were located at the rear of the aircraft, and all were in window seats.
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 19:13
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Originally Posted by GordonR_Cape
The report indicates that all of the seriously injured passangers (plus the one fatality) were located at the rear of the aircraft, and all were in window seats.
That's not altogether surprising - the tail would have hit the water first, given that the aircraft was on final approach, and all but 3 of the 35 pax were sitting in window seats.
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 20:00
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Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
That's not altogether surprising - the tail would have hit the water first, given that the aircraft was on final approach, and all but 3 of the 35 pax were sitting in window seats.
Interesting damage/injury differential between the 738 and Sully's A320.
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Old 26th Oct 2018, 20:37
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Originally Posted by b1lanc
Interesting damage/injury differential between the 738 and Sully's A320.
We won't know the extent of the damage until the aircraft is raised (surprising that it hasn't been by now).

The fact that there were only 4 serious injuries from 150 pax on the Hudson is likely to be down to the fact that the impact speed would have been lower than the 737 on final approach, and Sully's passengers were already bracing for the ditching.
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