Air Niugini

According to the brief statement from the airline, the Accident Investigation Commission investigation is on-going, therefore the specific claims made in the writ and published in the media, are yet to be proven.

Air Niugini’s management stated that since the incident, it has been in contact with all passengers to ensure they were getting the support they need, and majority of the passengers have welcomed the assistance.

The PNG Accident Investigation Commission has stated this when releasing its Preliminary Report on Friday October 26 with details of the aircraft which crash landed in Chuuk Lagoon.

The Preliminary reports states that the Pilots included a 52 year old Papua New Guinenan Captain with 19, 780.7 hours of flight time under his belt, and a 35 year old Australian Co-Pilot with 4, 618 hours flight time under his belt.

There were 12 crewmembers and 35 passengers on board. Six passengers were seriously injured, and one passenger fatally injured.

In a statement, the airline said: “Air Niugini is committed to ensuring the highest quality, on time service to all passengers and will continuously review its business to improve efficiencies.

“Our partners and the airline have invested heavily in setting up operations to achieve our goal of opening the Chinese market to Papua New Guinea. It is our desire to complete this venture at the earliest possible opportunity. 

Minister for Public Enterprise and State Investments, William Duma, said this when announcing the new managing directors of Air Niugini and Kumul Telikom PNG.

Duma announced the appointments of Alan Milne as MD of Air Niugini, and Paul Hyde as MD for Telikom PNG.

Duma said improving domestic services was a high priority for both organisations.

He stated that both companies were vital mechanisms in the economic growth of the country.

He said this was on the agenda as part of the goal to improve services.

Minister Duma said the immediate area of concern was to serve the people first.

“In the case of Air Niugini, our priority is to serve our people first and continue to provide services to our people, including some of those non-profitable domestic routes. So the preference is to providing the service that people expect.

“People also complain that the costs being charged by Air Niugini for tickets are quite expensive. We want to see an eventual reduction,” Duma stated.

“On Sunday morning, at Chuuk airport a little before 04.30 local time, government representatives from the highest levels of the Federated States of Micronesia attended a solemn ceremony as the body was boarded onto Flight PX 5071 for the first part of the journey to Port Moresby, arriving at Jackson’s International Airport at little over 3 hours later,” said Air Niugini.

The Recorders will be transported to Port Moresby's AIC laboratory for data downloading and analysis.

Minister Manasseh further stated that the aircraft is on the seabed 30 meters below the surface of the Chuuk Lagoon.

“Due to the contamination of the water from leaking aircraft fuel, the search of the aircraft had been delayed until the contamination dispersed to a level safe for the divers.”

The diving will continue on Wednesday to recover the Cockpit voice recorder and other recording devices from the aircraft.

The airline also confirmed that the United States Divers have completed an inspection inside the aircraft which landed short of Chuuk International Airport.

Air Niugini in a statement said the US divers have confirmed that all the passengers were safely evacuated from the aircraft.

This has been also confirmed by other passengers that the unaccounted person had been safely evacuated from the aircraft and was seen in one of the local dinghies that were assisting with transporting the passengers and crew to the shore.

Earlier today Air Niugini reported that it cannot account for one male passenger and is working with local authorities, hospitals and investigators to locate this passenger, who was on board flight PX 073.

Initial reports on scene indicated that all passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the aircraft.

Air Niugini reported it was working with the embassy and the passenger’s travel facilitator to contact his family.

This afternoon Air Niugini’s management released a couple of statements to assure families of the 47 on board the aircraft, that all were being taken care of by FSM authorities on Chuuk.

Air Niugini stated that the aircraft had 35 passengers and 12 crew members on board, all of whom were able to safely evacuate the aircraft with assistance from locals in Chuuk.

Amateur videos posted online from Chuuk locals show a number of boats responding immediately to the incident to assist passengers out of the partially sunken aircraft.