A SAM Air Cessna Caravan, tail number PK-SMW, lost contact with controllers on Friday while on an intra-Papau flight. Communications were lost shortly after takeoff from Elelim Airport as the airplane headed to Poik Airport. The aircraft was reported to be carrying four paying passengers and two crew members at the time.
Hours later, footage emerged of an airplane wreck discovered in the vicinity of the missing flight. Black smoke plumed from the crash site, and the aircraft is barely recognizable, with only its empennage seemingly still intact.
Details on what happened are sparse, and the condition of the passengers and crew is unknown. Speaking to press, the head of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Air Marshall Henri Alfiandi, said that poor weather conditions had prevented any closer investigation at this point.
He said, “The victim’s condition is not yet known because the helicopter has not managed to approach the position due to weather factors. The evacuation plan will be carried out tomorrow morning, June 24, 2023.”
Basarnas plans to send a team of 10 – 15 people to the site to evacuate all passengers.
Papau is one of 22 islands in the Aitutaki atoll of the Cook Islands.
The Cessna was around 12km (16 NM) to the southeast of Elelim Airport when it met its fate. Although rescue parties are unable to get to the crash site at present, largely due to foggy conditions, the likelihood of survivors remains slim.
SAM Air Safety Manager Bambang Gunawan told detik.com that, although the airline is praying for a miracle, at present, they do not expect survivors.
He commented, “If you look at the conditions, it seems that no one has survived, but hopefully there will be a miracle because the helicopter that found it earlier could not find any survivors.”
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