Plane crash in Moorea

[etmanch]

:eek: Not sure if anyone on CC has heard this news but my hearts go out to those who lost their lives!

 

News items : 08/09/2007 at 3:27PM

Air Moorea plane crashes after Moorea takeoff; 14 bodies recovered

 

(Tahitipresse) - An Air Moorea Twin Otter turboprop aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Moorea's Temae Airport around noon Thursday. Of the 19 passengers plus pilot aboard, 14 bodies had been recovered by 3 pm local time.

 

The plane crashed one nautical mile from the end of the Moorea airport runway, the French High Commissioner's office in Papeete reported.

 

Among the passengers was a delegation of officials that had visited Moorea to study work underway on two drainage projects involving European Development Fund aid. The delegation included two European Union officials and officials from the French Polynesia Ministry of Tourism and the Environment.

 

There also were two tourists aboard the plane, the high commissioner's office reported. A list of victims will be made public once identities have been confirmed, the office said.

 

Several boats nearby rushed to the scene of the crash, joined by two helicopters. The French Polynesia government's Tahiti Nui IX ship left Papeete Harbor early Thursday afternoon, carrying aboard divers to help in the search for bodies.

 

All flights between Tahiti and Moorea were temporarily halted immediately following the crash.

 

Initial reports said the plane fell directly into the water, sinking quickly, the high commissioner's office reported.

 

French Polynesia Government President Gaston Tong Sang interrupted his official visit to Tahiti's peninsula to be flown by helicopter to the Moorea airport.

 

A medical and psychological emergency committee was set up at the Air Tahiti headquarters at the Tahiti-Faa'a Airport to deal with the families of victims.

 

The French Gendarmerie immediately began gathering the first elements of information in its investigation of the crash. There was no immediate indication of what caused the plane to crash.

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[etmanch]

Here is just some more info I found.

 

14 bodies recovered from Air Moorea plane crash; 6 persons still missing

 

(Tahitipresse) - Rescue workers recovered the bodies of 14 of the 19 passengers and pilot who were aboard an Air Moorea Twin Otter turboprop plane when it crashed into the ocean shortly after taking off at noon Thursday from Moorea's Temae Airport.

 

An investigation has begun to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred in the ocean one nautical mile from the end of the Moorea airport's single runway.

 

A witness who was swimming only a few hundred meters from the crash site told Tahitipresse that the plane's two motors had suddenly stopped turning. "The Twin Otter took off. It was not very high. The weather was wonderful, but suddenly the motors made a funny noise and then immediately cut off while the plane was still taking off," said Bernard, who lives near the Moorea airport.

 

"Then the plane fell, not like a stone, but while continuing its trajectory. The impact was not strong. I saw the tail floating upright for a few moments, then it sunk . . . Fishing boats raced to the impact point. I was completely stupefied," the witness said.

 

Two Australians were reportedly the only tourists aboard the aircraft that had just begun its 10-minute routine shuttle flight to Tahiti and the Moorea Airport next to the Tahiti-Faa'a Airport used for international and Air Tahiti domestic flights throughout Tahiti and Her Islands.

 

It was not immediately known if the pilot of flight N° 1121, Michel Santurenne, 52, was among the 14 bodies recovered. The plane, one of three Air Moorea Twin Otter DCH6s, had been operating shuttle flights between Tahiti and its sister island of Moorea only since Nov. 17, 2006, and had flown 30,833 hours, which included three rotations Thursday morning, Air Moorea said in an e-mail communiqué.

 

After the noon takeoff, there was no further contact between the airport control tower and the pilot, said Christian Vernaudon, the CEO of Air Tahiti, which operates Air Moorea as an affiliate.

 

"We do not have precise information on the manner in which it crashed into the sea," he continued. "Boats that were in the area went to the scene of the accident." Speaking with the news media at mid-afternoon Thursday, Vernaudon said, "Ten minutes ago rescuers had recovered 14 bodies out of the 20 persons who had been aboard.

 

"For the moment, the bodies remain on Moorea . . . We all are upset. This is the worst thing that can occur," Vernaudon said.

 

At the Moorea terminal on Tahiti, there were looks of consternation on the faces of people, some of them foreigners, who could not immediately understand why their flight to Moorea had been cancelled. All flights between the two islands were temporarily cancelled following the crash.

 

The recovered bodies are due to be brought to the French Navy air base next to the Tahiti-Faa'a Airport terminal. A chapel is due to be set up for family and friends of the victims. The French High Commissioner's Office in Papeete announced that a list of victims would be made public once identities have been confirmed.

 

Among the passengers was a delegation of officials that had visited Moorea to study work underway on two drainage projects involving European Development Fund aid. The delegation included two European Union officials and officials from the French Polynesia Ministry of Tourism and the Environment.

 

The two European Commission officials, who met with French Polynesia Government President Gaston Tong Sang on Wednesday, were:

Jean-Pierre Pierard, 61, who headed up the Association of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) office in Nouméa, New Caledonia;

And Michel Gauche, who was the first adviser with the European Commission Delegation for the Pacific in Suva, Fiji.

 

President Gaston Tong Sang interrupted his official visit Thursday to Tahiti's peninsula area to be flown by helicopter to the Moorea airport. The French Polynesia government's Tahiti Nui IX ship left Papeete Harbor early Thursday afternoon, carrying aboard divers to help in the search for bodies.

 

Maïna Sage, French Polynesia minister of tourism and the environment, was deeply saddened by the loss of five members of her ministry. They are Didier Laurier, chief of staff; Guillaume Ratte, environment technical advisor; Pierre Coissac, head of the environment sector of the ministry; Eric Sesboue and Ms. Moetia Fourreau, both of the environment sector.

 

French Polynesia Health Minister Jules Ienfa later announced that an emergency medical-psychological committee was being formed as quickly as possible on Tahiti and on Moorea.

 

The committee on Tahiti is located at the headquarters of Air Tahiti next to the Tahiti-Faa'a Airport, offering the help of psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, doctors and social welfare assistants to the families of victims.

 

The committee on Moorea is located at the Afareaitu Hospital, offering the help of psychologists as well a public health officials working at the hospital.

 

The Public Health Department also set up a crisis committee to maintain a link between all of the medical network structures in operation as a result of the crash, which is one of the worst in French Polynesia.

 

An Air Tahiti Dornier plane crashed off Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands in April 1991, taking the lives of 10 persons aboard. In November 1973, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashed shortly after taking off from the Tahiti-Faa'a Airport. There were 78 victims and only one survivor. The plane was never recovered.

 

Air Moorea operates some 20 daily 10-minute flight shuttle service between Tahiti and its sister island of Moorea. The two motors on each of the airline's three Twin Otters are replaced yearly, according to Air Moorea's Internet Web site.

 

Each plane has a takeoff speed of 135 kph, a cruising speed of 310 kph and a landing speed of 150 kph, the Web site says.

 

Air Moorea has been operating shuttle flights between the two islands for 35 years. It also operates charter flights.

 

At this time of year, when the sun rises later in the morning, the flights begin from Tahiti at 5:45 am and from Moorea at 6:15 am. At peak travel times, there are flights every 30 minutes. During off-peak hours, there are flights every hour.

[RachelG]

We were in Moorea when this happened. The people who live there were really shaken up since it is a pretty small island, and everyone who lives there knows everyone else. Our guide on the hike knew the pilot. He said that it is really hard to take off from that airport when it is gusting wind, and it was that day.