Papua New Guinea plane crash kills 28

Four people survived, including the two pilots, when the Airlines PNG Dash-8 went down in dense forest about 20km south of Madang.

Most of the passengers on board the twin-prop aircraft were believed to be families travelling to attend a graduation ceremony for Madang university students. The Australian High Commission’s warden in Madang, Trevor Hattersley, said the aircraft had crashed in a remote jungle near the coast in poor weather conditions.

“The weather was horrendous,” he told the Associated Press news agency. “There was a huge storm that came through at the same time – big rain, big wind.”

Papua New Guinea’s Accident Investigation Commission said it was investigating the cause of the crash. Airlines PNG said it had grounded its fleet of 12 Dash-8 aircraft until further notice.