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Small plane crashes in Wamena, killing five
Ill-fated: The wreckage of a Pilatus aircraft belonging to PT Associated Mission Aviation (AMA) is found on Napua Mountain in Papua on Thursday
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span class="inline inline-center">Ill-fated: The wreckage of a Pilatus aircraft belonging to PT Associated Mission Aviation (AMA) is found on Napua Mountain in Papua on Thursday.(Courtesy of Papua Police)
A small Pilatus Porter aircraft crashed in the mountainous area of Jayawijaya in Papua on Wednesday after it lost contact with air traffic control only minutes after takeoff. The incident killed all five people on board, including the plane’s Dutch pilot.
The aircraft, owned by private airline PT Associated Mission Aviation (AMA) with the registration number PK-RCX, was on a short flight from Jayawijaya regency’s capital of Wamena to Derakma village in neighboring Nduga regency, when it crashed into Napua Mountain in Jayawijaya, some 13 kilometers from Wamena.
A search and rescue team found the plane’s wreckage at an altitude of 2,590 meters on Napua Mountain at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday. An evacuation mission was soon underway for its five victims, including pilot Wouter Mulders, a Dutch citizen who joined AMA in 2015, and co-pilot Valens Naibaho. The passengers were identified as Sanabut, Don and Ondomget, residents of Papua.
“All on board were killed in the incident; we received the information immediately after the search and rescue team reached the crash site,” AMA director Djarot Soetanto said in Sentani, Jayapura, on Thursday.
The PC-6 Pilatus Porter plane, which was also carrying 508 kilograms of food supplies, was scheduled to arrive in Derakma at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday. After only eight minutes of flight, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) picked up a signal from the aircraft’s Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT, which is normally set off at the moment of impact.
The incident destroyed the nose of the plane and its wings, while the tail remained intact.
AMA’s office in Sentani, Jayapura, received the bodies of the five victims on Thursday noon, after which they will be sent to their respective hometowns for burial.
Nanik Sri Kusumaningsih, the mother of co-pilot Valens, said nothing while watching the body of her only son being transported to AMA’s hanger. But sorrow was etched across her face.
The PC-6 plane is a single-engine Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) utility aircraft that is able to operate on small airstrips under 280 meters in length, making it fit to serve Papua’s rough terrain.
The accident left the company, which has been operating in Papua since 1959, with nine aircraft serving the Papuan region.
Flying is the only practical way of accessing remote, mountainous areas in the country’s easternmost province, where road infrastructure is still lacking. However, Papua has seen numerous accidents involving planes in the past, mainly because of its rough environment.
In May, a Sriwijaya Air plane carrying 146 passengers and four crew members skid 20 meters off the runway after landing at Rendani Airport in Manokwari, West Papua, during heavy rainfall.
A month before, a Cessna Caravan aircraft belonging to PT Spirit Avia Sentosa (Flying SAS) crashed in a mountainous region in Papua, killing the pilot. The plane was carrying food supplies from Boven Digoel regency to neighboring Bintang regency.
The National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) recorded 15 aviation accidents in Papua last year, ranging from minor incidents with no casualties to fatal crashes.
