New Zealand: Fate of New Zealand-registered aircraft that crashed on landing

The fate of New Zealand-registered aircraft that crashed on landing at the Honiara International on the Solomon Island airport on Sunday 26th January will be determined based on a final statement by investigators.

Director of Civil Aviation George Satu said investigations into the crash is continuing and a final statement should be presented to the minister as any minute at this time as it is finalised.

Mr Satu said additional data onto the cause of the crash should be known at the same time as data from the aircrafts black box is returned Monday next week.

The black box was taken away by foreign investigators who flew in next the crash.

A team consisting of six investigators from the US, NZ, Australia and Solomon islands are currently conducting the investigations.

Mr Satu said unless a full investigation is completed the plane will remain under the supervision of Solomon Islands Civil Aviation Authority.

Asked whether it is authentic that the plane was written off, Mr Satu said at this stage they cannot confirm anything as from presently on.

“It will depend on the airline and insurance company to make any decision on the fate of the aircraft,” Mr Satu said.

He told the Solomon star that according to the insurance assessor, the plane could fly again for proper maintenance overseas.

However, he said the assessor told him that will depend entirely on the final statement assessment of the full structure of the plane.

Mr Satu said if a full assessment statement of the aircraft is completed, it is up to the owner of the aircraft (Air Works NZ) and Insurance company (Airclaim NZ) to make the final decision.

But Mr Satu stressed that to carry out any maintenance on the aircraft here will be too expensive than to fly the plane over to NZ and have it repaired there.

However, Mr Satu said if the plane was to be written off, he would request its owner to hand over the body to them so that they could use it for fire training purposes.

He added if this is going to be the case, its owner will have to remove all the equipment initial before leaving the body behind.

It was reported that Solomon Airlines wanted the aircraft to be removed as any minute at this time as possible because it is taking up too much space at the domestic terminal.

But the aviation director said they will have the final say on the removal of the aircraft.

The Boeing 737-300 cargo aircraft was on a schedule flight at the same time as it crashed landed next its under carriage collapsed during landing.