{"id":285874,"date":"2018-10-03T06:06:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T20:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=285874"},"modified":"2018-10-03T06:06:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T20:06:49","slug":"passenger-body-found-in-chuuk-lagoon-after-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/passenger-body-found-in-chuuk-lagoon-after-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Passenger body found in Chuuk lagoon after crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia<\/strong> (AP)\u2014A passenger\u2019s body has been found in the Pacific lagoon where a plane crash-landed last week near an island runway in Micronesia.<\/p>\n

Air Niugini had initially said all 47 passengers and crew had survived when the Boeing 737 crashed near the Chuuk island runway on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Papua New Guinea national carrier said on Saturday one passenger had not been accounted for but was witnessed reaching a rescue dinghy as U.S. Navy sailors and locals helped people escape the sinking plane.<\/p>\n

But Air Niugini chief executive Tahawar Durrani said the man\u2019s body was found by divers Monday. The airline said in a statement on Tuesday the man was Indonesian, but did not reveal his identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur outreach team is in touch with the man\u2019s family and we are making arrangements to repatriate his body,\u201d Durrani said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Four passengers were in stable conditions at a Chuuk island hospital and will be taken soon to Guam for further treatment, Air Niugini said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe circumstances surrounding this accident are now a matter for relevant authorities as they begin their task of investigating the events that led to the incident and the actions which followed. We are committing all required resources to ascertain the factors that led to this accident,\u201d Durrani said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Hospital and aviation officials have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Flight PX73 from nearby Pohnpei island crashed about 145 meters (475 feet) from the Chuuk International Airport runway, the airline said.<\/p>\n

What caused the crash remains unclear. The airline and U.S. Navy said the plane landed in the lagoon short of the runway. Some witnesses thought the plane overshot the runway. Plans are underway for recover the black box from the submerged airplane.<\/p>\n

A Papua New Guinea accident investigation team flew to Micronesia on Friday, the Post Courier newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

Flight PX73 flies from Tokyo\u2019s Narita International Airport to Papua New Guinea\u2019s capital, Port Moresby, via Pohnpei and Chuuk.<\/p>\n

The FSM government has assured that it is thoroughly investigating the incident. The FSM Justice Department\/National Police is securing the site and providing necessary assistance to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Request was made to the U.S. government for its assistance, and investigators arrived in Chuuk to join the investigation team. FSM and PNG are also working together on this investigation.<\/p>\n

Air Niugini has operated since 1973. Data from the Aviation Safety Network indicate the Indonesian passenger is Air Niugini\u2019s first fatality in two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia (AP)\u2014A passenger\u2019s body has been found in the Pacific lagoon where a plane…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[22867,22870,22871,22872],"class_list":["post-285874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-air-niugini","tag-chuuk-international-airport","tag-post-courier","tag-tahawar-durrani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}