Plane makes crash landing

 AN expatriate pilot sustained injuries and a fractured leg after a small engine aircraft crashed landed at Golgobip airstrip in Tabubil, Western, over the weekend. 

Western provincial police commander Silva Sika said the aircraft, owned by Nuigini Aviation, left Kiunga on Saturday for Golgobip station with six  passengers on board.

“The weather was not good, and this might be the cause of the incident but police are still to conduct investigations to see if it was pilot error or the plane.”

He said the plane had already approached the runway of the airstrip at the station, however, it was airborne  again before it crash landed at the end of the runway.

“The pilot was the only one who sustained injuries with a fractured leg. The other passengers were four adults and two children.”

The Ok Tedi safety department team was not able to get to the crash  site in a helicopter because of the adverse weather condition.

Sika said on Sunday, the pilot was airlifted by the team to Tabubil and is admitted at Tabubil hospital.

Small-engine planes are usually based in Kiunga and do charter runs to remote airstrips where there are no roads. 

Sika said most people living in areas where roads are not accessible depended heavily on the planes to transport goods and materials for houses.