A Papua New Guinean flight on Friday landed short of the runway in the Federated States of Micronesia and crashed into the sea, Reuters reported. A flotilla of local boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew members from the national carrier Air Niugini’s sinking aircraft.
The injured are being treated at a local hospital. Four passengers are in a serious condition, having suffered bone fractures and other injuries, the news agency quoted the hospital spokesperson as saying.
The national carrier issued a statement saying “the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of the incident”. A spokesperson from Papua New Guinea’s Accident Investigation Commission said investigators would soon be deployed to the site.
The Boeing 737-800 is purportedly a 13-year-old aircraft that was previously operated by Jet Airways and Air India Express and was involved in a collision at Port Moresby in May, The Guardian reported.
In 2013, a Lion Air flight overshot the runway in Indonesia’s Denpasar and landed in the sea. All 101 passengers were rescued from the aircraft.
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