By Adelaide Sirox Kari – EMTV News, Port Moresby
It looks like things may not be going well for the National Carrier, an Air Niugini aircraft had to abort take off this morning, following an engine failure in the final moments of take-off.
EMTV News Senior Journalist and Anchor Meriba Tulo was on board with other Media personnel and officers from the Department of Finance and Treasury.
The chartered flight was to Keita and then on to Buin for the 2018 Finance Heads Meeting, when the Fokker 70 had to be towed back.
This is latest unfortunate aircraft mishap, as the airline confirmed that the sole missing male passenger from the PX073 Chuuk flight, who was believed to be from Indonesia, was confirmed dead.
In a media statement the airline company’s CEO, Tahawar Durrani, said “It is with deep sadness, I confirm that the body of a male passenger was discovered by divers today as they conducted a further search of P2-PXE and the surrounding area in the Chuuk Lagoon.
This is the unaccounted passenger from the aircraft. Our outreach team is in touch with the man’s family and we are making arrangements to repatriate his body.
The circumstances surrounding this accident are now a matter for relevant authorities as they begin their task of investigating the events that led to the incident and the actions which followed. We are committing all required resources to ascertain the factors that led to this accident.
We express our deepest sympathy to his family. We are and will continue to provide support to his family in this time of loss.”
In a previous statement by Air Niugini, it said US Navy Divers had searched the aircraft and found nobody on-board and the passenger was sighted boarding a rescue boat.
Meanwhile, reports from Micronesia claim the body was found on the aircraft.
