Lack of funds stall crash investigations

By SHEILA LASIBORI
AT LEAST four aircraft crash sites and wreckages of the crafts are yet to be accessed by air safety investigators.
This is reportedly due to the unavailability of funds to meet the cost of the investigators’ travel and especially helicopter hire to gain access to the sites, which are remotely located.
A senior staff from the Transport and Civil Aviation Department, wishing anonymity, said some funding for the investigation team was allocated by the department’s finance division last year but the delay in releasing these funds resulted in the funds consolidated back to the Finance Department.
The first of the aircraft incidents happened in October 2006 just off Emperor Mine, who owned the Tolukuma gold mine, where four people including an expatriate pilot died.
The B206 long ranger helicopter owned by Heli Niugini Limited was on hire to drop a dead body and a villager at Kerame village, five nautical miles from the mine site when it crashed.
The others who died were nationals who worked within the logistic and supply and community relations departments of the mine.
The maker of the craft, Bell Helicopters in Canada, carried out their investigations while makers of the engine, Rolls Royce in Singapore, also carried out their investigations and the reports are reportedly with the department.
The team also needs to access the wreckage of the Twin-Otter aircraft that crashed at Gasmata in West New Britain province last April that claimed two lives – both pilots.
This aircraft was on a charter run for a newspaper company when it crashed.
Earlier, the investigators could not access the area as the locals there had allegedly demanded K20,000 in compensation for the aircraft crashing on their land.
The officer said the team needed at least K50,000 to K60,000 for this investigation.
The team also needs to conduct its own investigations into the crash landing incident involving a Twin-Otter in Alotau last month and another helicopter mishap in Porgera involving a Russian made helicopter owned by a prominent company.