Everybody on plane survives crash landing in Pacific lagoon

Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand

All 47 passengers and crew survived a plane’s crash landing in a Pacific lagoon Friday morning, wading through waist-deep water to the emergency exits and escaping on local boats that came to the rescue in the Micronesia archipelago.

Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in critical but stable condition.

Passenger Bill Jaynes said the Air Niugini plane came in very low as it was attempting to land at the Chuuk Island airport.

“I thought we landed hard,” he said. “Until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. And I thought, well, this is not the way it’s supposed to happen.”

Jaynes said the flight attendants were panicking and yelling, and that he suffered a minor head injury. He said he called his wife, who started crying.

“I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats,” he said in an interview with a missionary in Chuuk, Matthew Colson, that was posted online and shared with the AP. “One would think that they might be afraid to approach a plane that’s just crashed.”

The sequence of events remains unclear. The airline said the plane landed short of the runway. However, Jaynes said the only scenario he can imagine is that it hit the end of the runway and continued into the water.

The U.S. Navy said sailors working nearby on improving a wharf also helped in the rescue by using an inflatable boat to shuttle people ashore before the plane sank in about 100 feet of water.