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PNG - The Fatal Sky

Broadcast: 19/08/2008
Reporter: Steve Marshall

LEAD STORY
SERIES 18
EPISODE 8

Synopsis

If you want to travel any distance in Papua New Guinea, forget about driving. There are few roads and those that exist are hazardous and, after dark, the domain of criminals.

Air travel is often the only viable option but Papua New Guinea’s rugged terrain and unpredictable weather conditions make it one of the most challenging countries in the world for pilots.

Yet important as the industry is in Papua New Guinea aviation insiders claim safety standards have plummeted in the last two decades.

A senior PNG air crash investigator, says standards have “fallen over the edge”.

Government incompetence, lack of funding and corruption have rendered the air crash investigation staff frustrated and disheartened.

PNG’s Transport Minister Don Poyle admits in an interview with Marshall “There’s been insufficient funding to upkeep the maintenance of airports and airstrips in Papua New Guinea not only in aviation but in other sectors as well.”

Steve Marshall has emotional meetings with two families who have lost loved ones in air crashes and have no answers as to why the planes crashed.

Mr Poyle responds, “I’m sorry for the families who lost loved ones in those crashes. I must say that it was the slackness on the part of the system in getting the air investigation commission and the structure established.”

Since Marshall began investigating the story, the Papua New Guinea government has announced the appointment of a chairman and two commissioners to head up an Accident Investigation Commission.

The announcement comes just weeks before the International Civil Aviation Organisation, or ICAO, arrives in PNG to conduct an audit of air safety. ICAO requires that air crashes be investigated and has been known to take strong disciplinary action against countries that don’t meet its standards.

In the course of reporting this story Steve Marshall also inspected the safety infrastructure at Mount Hagen airport, one of PNG’s busiest hubs and its second international airstrip. He finds a fire brigade ill-prepared for an emergency.

An Australian based aviation safety auditor says conditions in PNG are ripe for an accident like that of the 2007 Garuda airline crash at Indonesia’s Yogyakarta airport.

ABC