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(CANBERRA, Australia) – A South Pacific airline announced Monday that a passenger died while a plane crashed on a Pacific lagoon in Micronesia last week.
Air Niugini initially said the 47 passengers and crew had survived the crash of a Boeing 737 near the Chuuk Island runway on Friday.
The national carrier of Papua New Guinea said Saturday that a passenger had not been found, but witnesses had said that he had reached a dinghy while US Navy sailors and local residents were rescuing people from the sinking.
But Air Niugini chief executive Tahawar Durrani said the body of the man was found Monday by divers in the lagoon. The airline has not identified the man or released his nationality.
"Our outreach team is in contact with the man's family and we are arranging to repatriate his body," Durrani said in a statement.
Four passengers were in stable conditions at the Chuuk hospital and will soon be brought to Guam for treatment, Air Niugini said.
An official at Chuuk State Hospital did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Monday.
The PX73 flight from the neighboring island of Pohnpei crashed into a lagoon located about 145 meters from the runway at Chuuk International Airport, the airline announced.
Air Niugini chairman Kosta Constaninou said on Sunday that witnesses saw the missing passenger board a dinghy as US divers and local residents rescued passengers and crew from the sinking.
The cause of the crash and the exact sequence of events remain unclear. The airline and the US Navy both said that the plane had landed in the lagoon before the runway. Some witnesses thought that the plane was over the track.
An accident investigation team in Papua New Guinea visited Micronesia on Friday, reported the Post Courier newspaper.
An official from the Micronesia Civil Aviation Division did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Monday.
The flight PX73 connects Narita International Airport to Tokyo to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, via Pohnpei and Chuuk.
Air Niugini has been in service since 1973. According to data from the aviation safety network, 111 people have died as a result of a collision with an airline registered in Papua New Guinea over the past two decades, but none none of them concerned Air Niugini.
