By Adelaide Sirox Kari – EMTV News, Port Moresby
While investigations are still underway for the Air Niugini Chuuk crash in the Federated State of Micronesia (FSM), a safety hazard was picked up by the PNG Accident Investigation Commission (PNG AIC) on a safety card on Air Niugini’s Boeing 737 service.
While it’s a slight diagram misinterpretation, PNG AIC believed strongly it would be negligence on the part of the Airline Company to not have it corrected.
Safety briefings and safety cards are usually the first thing flight attendants direct your attention to before take off; for most regular flights it’s not something that is taken seriously, but like the saying goes, ‘safety first’.
The PNG Accident Investigation Commission is working with the Federated States of Micronesia into the investigation of how PX 0-7-3 landed 460 meters short of the runway at Chuuk found that the safety card on the Boeing 737 on the emergency routes when the aircraft water ditches, may be misinterpreted.
On the Safety card, it depicts a water ditch incident.
At section A, the diagram shows the two exit routes at business class and shows two life rafts, on board the 737 it has only 1 life raft for the business class.
And under section 2.1-4.4.1 of the Air Niugini limited safety and emergency procedure manual volume 6, it specifies that the raft is to be deployed to the forward left door.
The PNG Air has seen its recommendation to Air Niugini recommended for ANG to correct the safety card to show the accurate depiction of which exit can have the life raft deployed.
PNGAIC further requested for Air Niugini limited to note the recommendation and provide a response to the AIC within 90 days of the issue date. And explain how they have addressed the safety deficiency identified in the safety recommendation.
EMTV confirmed that Air Niugini received the recommendation and is expected to do changes by the end of this week.
The runway mishap in September saw Air Niugini’s Boeing 737 falling short of landing on the runway crashing into the lagoon at Chuuk. The accident resulted with one death.
