Commission warns people against interfering

THE Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission has warned the public not to interfere with its investigations into any incident.
PNG AIC Chief Commissioner Hubert Namani made the call following the removal of a single engine Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft registered P2-HFB at an incident site in Malam airstrip in Western.
Namani said that no one should remove or interfere with the aircraft under investigation except with the permission of the AIC.
He explained that in the event of an accident or serious incident, the Civil Aviation Act mandated the AIC to conduct investigations to determine the causes and circumstances of such occurrences.
The Act also confers a number of powers to the AIC to seize, detain, remove, preserve, protect, or test aircraft, aeronautical products or anything that could assist in its functions.
He said on Oct 28 at 2.40pm, a single engine Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft registered P2-HFB operated by Helifix landed in Malam airstrip.
During its landing roll, the aircraft collided with an ant hill, causing damage mainly to the nose landing gear.
No injuries were reported as a result of this occurrence.
This occurrence met the criteria of an accident.
However, it was not notified to the AIC and when the commission immediately commenced an investigation, it was found out during the initial inquiries that the aircraft had already been removed from the accident, which impeded the AIC to conduct on-site activities.
The second occurrence took place on Oct 29 at 11.03am, when a Cessna 525 Citation Jet CJ1 aircraft registered P2-MEH operated by Tropicair that was approximately 30 nautical miles (55.5km) from Port Moresby.
It declared an emergency in flight due to an indication of smoke from the cargo compartment and after landing conducted an evacuation procedure. No damage nor injuries were reported.
“This second occurrence was notified almost immediately to the AIC, which allowed to commence a serious incident investigation in a timely manner,” Namani said.