Confirmation has come in of a male passenger who was found dead after the nation’s flag carrier, Air Niugini’s flight PX073 had landing mishap at Chuuk, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
The body was found in the aircraft which had sunken 33 meters into the lagoon after the aircraft fell short of landing at the runway.
Civil Aviation Minister, Alfred Manase, in a media statement late this afternoon, said at 2:50 pm yesterday, the body of the passenger presumed missing, was located in the aircraft wreckage.
Minister Manase said due to fuel leakage from the aircraft, the search had been delayed until the area was safe for divers.
US Navy divers then extracted the deceased passenger from the Boeing 737.
Also at 2:35 pm today, civilian divers contracted by FSM recovered the flight data recorder from the aircraft, and diving will continue tomorrow to recover the cockpit voice recorder and other recording devices.
The recorders will then be transported to the PNG AIC laboratory in Port Moresby for data downloading and analysis.
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