Air Niugini ATR-42 , cargo flight overrun runway fell inside river

19 October 2013

Air Niugini ATR-42-300 registration P2-PXY cargo flight with 3 crew members it was taking off from Madang Papua New Guiana runway 25 when the crew rejected the take off but overrun the end of runway broke airport's fence and fell inside Meiro Creek river.The 3 crew members escaped from airplane with minor injures.Airplane's right wing and right engine destroyed from fire

On 22 October 2013 the French BEA in their weekly bulletin reported the following about the accident:

"The aircraft was departing RWY 25 at Madang for Tabubil at 0915 local time with a cargo of approximately 3,500 kilograms cigarettes. The cargo was loaded at Madang. The handling pilot was the captain. When the captain rotated during the take off run,the nosewheel did not Iift off the ground. The Captain reported the flight controls felt very heavy in pitch. The Captain aborted the take off, and the aircraft ran off the end of RWY 25 and over a bank approximately 3 metres high at the end of the RWY. The aircraft continued a further 100 metres [approximately). The right wing impacted the airport perimeter fencing causing (a) the aircraft to turn approximately 45 degrees to the right and (b) the right outboard wing and engine to catch fire. The aircraft came to rest in a small creek, with the forward 4/5 of the fuselage in the water and the cockpit mostly submerged. The crew of three escaped through the hatch in the roof of the cockpit and were helped to safety by local people. The aircraft is seriously damaged; most of the fuselage is in the water, although only the aircraft nose is completely submerged. The right outboard wing burned during the accident, and the right engine burned and fell off the wing into the water. The CVR and FDR were not submerged and were recovered in good condition."

On 13 December the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (PNGAIC) released a preliminary report about the accident.You can read full here

Quick Summary:

The aircraft was carrying 860 kg of mixed freight to be off-loaded in Madang.During taxi
at Port Moresby, the anti-skid warning light illuminated. The flight crew stopped the
aircraft, carried out the relevant checklist, and determined from the aircraft performance charts that it was permissible to land at Madang with the anti-skid inoperative. The flight to Madang was normal and the aircraft landed there at 0732. While on the ground, the freight from Port Moresby was off-loaded and a cargo consisting entirely of cigarettes, packaged in large cardboard cartons, was loaded for Tabubil and Port Moresby.
The aircraft taxied to depart from runway 25 at 0915. The flight crew used the full length of the runway and the takeoff roll was normal until the Pilot-in-Command, who was the handling pilot, tried to rotate at VR2(which the flight crew had calculated to be 102
knots). He reported afterwards that the controls felt very heavy in pitch and he could not pull the control column back in the normal manner.
Flight data recorder (FDR) information indicated that after approximately two seconds the Pilot-in-Command aborted the takeoff and selected full reverse thrust, and he reported later that he had applied full braking. It was not possible to stop the aircraft before the end of the runway and it continued over the embankment at the end of the runway and the right wing struck the perimeter fence . This caused the aircraft to yaw to the right and it entered a creek beyond the perimeter fence at approximately 45 degrees to its direction of movement. The right outboard wing section caught fire and the flight crew escaped through the hatch in the cockpit roof. The Pilot-in-command, who was the last to remain on board, discharged the fire extinguishers in each engine and switched off the battery master switch before leaving the aircraft.

P2-PXY

First Flight:21-3-1988

Age:25.6 years

Engines:2 x PWC PW121

photos from twitter

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