Thursday, October 13, 2011

Passenger plane crashes in Papua New Guinea, Australia sending help

AUSTRALIA has scrambled four black hawk helicopters to PNG to help in the search and rescue effort following a deadly airplane crash near the resort port town of Madang.

The Dash 8 aircraft owned by Airlines PNG s crashed short of the tourist port town of Madang, north of Port Moresby.

Reports said four people survived the crash. Twenty-eight are reported to have perished. The crash happened in extremely bad weather.

Police in Madang confirmed the crash.

Onboard were mainly parents on their way to attend the thanksgiving for the children attending the Divine Word University in Madang.

The pilots were believed to be Australians and are among the four that had survived.

It was believed a fire on board caused the crash. PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has asked Australia to help with search and rescue efforts.

The black hawks are in Port Moresby for a joint defence force exercise and were based in Port Moresby when O'Neill made the request.

They were scrambled and sent north to Madang. A massive search and rescue effort is under way.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au

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