Jet passengers rescued by local fishermen after lagoon landing
A PLANE landed short of a runway and ended up in a South Pacific lagoon yesterday morning, prompting a frantic effort by local fishermen to rescue its passengers.
The Air Niugini flight, carrying 47 people, apparently came in very low as it approached Chuuk airport on the small island of Weno in the Federated States of Micronesia. It landed about 450 feet short of the runway in the gentle waters of an adjoining lagoon.
“I [just] thought we landed hard,” said Bill Jaynes, a passenger, “until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. And I thought, ‘this is not the way it’s supposed to happen’.”
Video footage showed small fishing boats approaching the partially submerged plane to rescue the panicked passengers who waded through waistdeep water to escape. All passengers were rescued, though about four remained injured in hospital.
Louie Mallari, who was working at a hotel near the airport, said he heard the roar of the engine and then screaming.
“As the plane approaches, the sound of the engine is getting stronger, then suddenly a splash of water,” he told Associated Press. The incident was immediately likened to the 2009 crash landing in New York known as the “Miracle on the Hudson”.
But that incident occurred in the freezing Hudson River in a city of eight million people. This crash occurred in a remote tropical island with a population of 14,000.
Mr Jaynes said the locals who assisted were “awesome”.
“We came in low, very low,” he said. “Unfortunately, the flight attendants panicked and started yelling. I was trying to be calm and help…i was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats. One might think they’d be afraid to approach a plane that just crashed… [but] they were awesome.”
Most of the passengers were locals, though there were also some tourists from Australia and the United States.
Papua New Guinea’s Accident Investigation Commission is sending a team to Weno. The airline said there was heavy rain and poor visibility when the crash occurred, at about 10am.
According to the Aviation Safety Network website, the plane was involved in a collision at the airport in Port Moresby in May. It was stationary but suffered “significant damage” after its right winglet was clipped by the wing of a turning cargo plane.