PLANE MISSES RUNWAY, CRASHES INTO PACIFIC LAGOON, ALL SAFE
LOCALS SCRAMBLE A FLOTILLA OF SMALL BOATS TO PLUCK 35 PASSENGERS AND 12 CREW FROM WATER AS AIR NIUGINI BOEING DITCHES INTO A LAGOON AND BEGINS SINKING AFTER MISSING THE RUNWAY ON A REMOTE PACIFIC ISLAND OFF MICRONESIA
WELLINGTON: A passenger on a plane that crashed into a Pacific lagoon in Weno, Micronesia, on Friday said the flight attendants were panicking and he saw water pouring through a hole in the side of the plane before he was able to escape.
Local boats helped rescue all 47 passengers and crew after the plane hit the water while trying to land at the Chuuk Island airport in the Micronesia archipelago. There were 35 passengers and 12 crew members.
Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in critical but stable condition.
Passenger Bill Jaynes said the Air Niugini plane came in very low.
“I thought we landed hard,” he said. “Until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. And I thought, well, this is not the way it’s supposed to happen.”
Jaynes said those aboard managed to wade through waist-deep water to the emergency exits on the sinking plane.
He said the flight attendants were yelling, and that he suffered a minor head injury. He said he called his wife, who started crying.
“I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats,” he said in an interview with a missionary in Chuuk, Matthew Colson, that was posted online and shared with the AP.
“One would think that they might be afraid to approach a plane that’s just crashed.”
MAJURO: Passengers were forced to swim for their lives on Friday when an airliner ditched into a lagoon after missing the runway on a remote Paciic island and began sinking. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning.
Within minutes, locals scrambled a lotilla of small boats to pluck the 35 passengers and 12 crew from the water.
The airline said the plane, which was involved in a collision with another aircraft earlier this year, had “landed short of the runway.” Remarkably, it reported no serious injuries among those on the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby.
“Air Niugini can conirm that all on board were able to safely evacuate the aircraft,” the irm said in a brief statement. “The airline is making all efforts to ensure the safety and immediate needs of our passengers and crew.” The airline did not detail what caused the accident, which occurred at about 9:30am (2330 GMT Thursday).
But it said it had been informed that “the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident.” Passenger Bill Jaynes, editor of the Pohnpei-based Kaselehlie Press newspaper said he did not even realise there had been an accident until he saw water gushing into the fuselage.
“It was surreal,” he told Bible Baptist Radio Chuuk shortly after being discharged from hospital with a gash on his forehead. “I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water coming in. I thought ‘this is not the way it’s supposed to happen.’” Jaynes praised the response of the locals. “They immediately starting coming out in boats. They were awesome and I was really impressed,” he said. A witness told the media the plane approached the airport “very low” before hitting the water.
The runway, like others in the north Paciic, is relatively short at 1,831m. It is surrounded on three sides by water. The Chuuk lagoon was a famous World War II battle site and dozens of Japanese vessels and planes are on the lagoon loor, now a tourist attraction for scuba divers.
It is not the irst time a plane has overshot the runway in Micronesia.
In 2008, an Asia Paciic Airlines cargo Boeing 727 overran and ended up with its nose landing gear in the lagoon at the end of the Pohnpei airport runway. Papua New Guinea’s Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) said it was preparing to send investigators to Weno.
“We’re trying to arrange a team to go there but I cannot give you any more information because I simply don’t have it,” a spokesman said.
Air Niugini is Papua New Guinea’s national airline and lists only one 737800 among its leet of 21 aircraft on its oficial website. According to registration details supplied by the airline, the plane was built in 2005 and had previously been owned by Air India Express and Mumbai-based Jet Airways.
The AIC website details an incident involving the aircraft in May this year when a Hercules operated by a freight company clipped the 737’s wing while taxiing, causing “signiicant damage.”
The website said the accident is still under investigation.