ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 184999
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| Date: | Saturday 26 September 1970 |
| Time: | 13:25 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-23-250 Aztec |
| Owner/operator: | South Pacific Aero Club |
| Registration: | VH-SPM |
| MSN: | 27-3739 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1967 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Mount Scratchley, Owen Stanley Range, Central -
 Papua New Guinea
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Kokoda |
| Port Moresby | |
| Investigating agency: | BASI |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
At approximately 1325 hours Eastern Standard Time on 26 September, 1970, a Piper PA-23-250 Aztec aircraft, registered VH-SPM, collided with the precipitous face of a ravine, 490 feet below the main line of a ridge, on the eastern slopes of Mt. Scratchley, PNG. The aircraft was engaged on a charter flight for the carriage of passengers and baggage from Kokoda to Port Moresby. The aircraft reported its departure from Kokoda but, when it did not arrive at Port Moresby, search and rescue procedures were initiated. The wreckage was sighted on 1 October, 1970 in dense rain forest, 10,100 feet above mean sea level. At first, the efforts of ground rescue parties to reach the wreckage were frustrated by extremely bad weather conditions, the high altitude and the precipitous terrain. Thirteen more days elapsed before a member of a mountain rescue party reached the accident site to find that the aircraft had been destroyed by impact forces and the pilot and the three passengers on board· had suffered fatal injuries.
CAUSE: The cause of the accident was that the pilot, whilst operating without adequate terrain clearance, proceeded into conditions in which visual flight could not be maintained.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
ABC (Madrid) 3 October 1970, p39
BASI
Images:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Feb-2016 16:26 | TB | Added |
| 10-Nov-2018 15:34 | harro | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Photo, Accident report, ] |
| 28-Jun-2023 08:56 | Ron Averes | Updated [[Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Photo, Accident report, ]] |
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