Fed: Smith says 4th body removed from PNG plane crash

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2009
Fed: Smith says 4th body removed from PNG plane crash

CANBERRA, Aug 14 AAP - A fourth body has been removed from the plane that crashed near
Kokoda, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

But, so far, none has been removed from the crash site where weather conditions remained
very difficult, he said.

"We now have to brace ourselves for what will be potentially a painstaking and long
process, much longer than we would want," Mr Smith told ABC Radio on Friday.

All 13 people on board the aircraft, nine of them Australians, were killed when the
aircraft crashed into a mountain about 1.5km north of the Papua New Guinean village of
Isurava at an altitude of 5,500 feet on Tuesday.

Rescue crews first arrived at the site on Wednesday but have since encountered great
difficulties in removing remains because of bad weather and rugged terrain.

In addition to the problems of extracting the remains, there was still the complex
and difficult processes of formal identification, Mr Smith said.

There were also three jurisdictions to consider - Australia, PNG and Japan.

"It always takes longer than one would wish or want," he said.

Mr Smith said he was aware of reports that other trekkers were stranded at Kokoda because
of the accident.

Those reports were not verified, although Airlines PNG, which operated the crash flight,
has temporarily suspended flights to Kokoda.

A RAAF Caribou aircraft would soon head from Port Moresby to Kokoda and officials aboard
would be able to make checks.

"Given the general circumstances we are of course doing everything we can to check
that very quickly," Mr Smith said.

Australian aviation agencies would assist the PNG inquiry into the crash.

"Let's have a look at the exhaustive investigation of the crash and then see what,
if any, changes need to be made as a consequence of that."

AAP mb/rl/apm

KEYWORD: PNG PLANE SMITH

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