AircraftNews.Com

The recent tragic loss of a DHC 6 twin otter in PNG with the loss of at least 13 lives has brought out into the open all the usual suspects. The pilot a young PNG National has callously and unreasonably been dubbed inexperienced and the aircraft affectionately know to many as The Twatter described as poorly maintained. With these and other stories such as that the co pilot had been “forced” to fly on his day off all coming from no where it seems likely that after the ususal shock horror tsk tsk reaction an enquiry will be called and what is already is known will be pointed out (flying in PNG is very difficult, aviation infra structure has been allowed to decay to a point which would be unacceptable in many other places in the world etc) and then a few people will be blamed preferably I suspect people outside PNG such as Australia or the EU and nothing will change.
I surely hope not. It is technically possible to avoid such incidents and relatively cheap and simple so to do. Augmented GPS approaches and rotary wing transport would transform such operations as the Kokoda one with a much lower level of risk. The Augmented GPS component of this solution is available now and should be put in place with dispatch. I suppose there will be a fight over who will pay for it. Couldn’t the interested parties do it now and decide on final distribution of costs later? It would cost much less than a Stealth bomber or an AWAC.