Transcript, E&OE
11 August 2009
Press Conference - Parliament House, Canberra
Subjects: Missing plane in Papua New Guinea.
STEPHEN SMITH: You would be aware of the statement I made to the House at the conclusion of Question Time this afternoon about PNG Airlines flight CG4684, the flight from Port Moresby to Kokoda, which was due to arrive in Kokoda this morning. I'd like to provide an update and further details.
The plane is still missing at the conclusion of the search tonight. The search has been hampered by very bad and inclement weather and of course it is now dark in PNG. Weather permitting the search will resume tomorrow.
I can confirm that the plane had 11 passengers and two crew. Of the 13 on board the plane, nine are Australians, three are Papua New Guineans and one is a Japanese citizen. We hold very grave concerns for their safety and wellbeing.
Of the nine Australians, all of their families in Australia have been contacted by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade consular officers. The nine come from Queensland and Victoria. For all the obvious reasons I'm not in a position to go into any more detail than that.
We are providing their families in Australia with every consular assistance. And we are not aware of any family members in PNG. This of course is an agonising time for those families and our hearts go out to them.
If I can just detail steps that have been taken since Question Time both by the Australian Government and by the Papua New Guinea Government.
Following my statement to the House at about 4 o'clock, which coincided with the statement in Papua New Guinea by PNG Airlines, at 4:30pm the Prime Minister, Minister for Defence, the National Security Adviser and the Chief of the Defence Forces Angus Houston and I met. After a short meeting we agreed to ready Australian Defence assets for deployment to assist in search and rescue.
At about 5:15pm the Prime Minister spoke with Prime Minister Somare. Prime Minister Somare accepted the Australian offer of assistance and steps were taken to arrange the deployment of those assets and I'll come to the detail of that later.
I've just come from a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. And my colleague the Defence Minister Senator Faulkner is as we speak or just before I arrived, detailing those assets and the disposition of those search and rescue assets to the Senate.
In terms of the search and rescue efforts made by Papua New Guinea today, my advice is that the search and rescue effort this afternoon has been hampered by bad weather, low visibility and of course very rugged terrain along the Owen Stanley Ranges along the Kokoda track between Port Moresby and Kokoda.
The PNG search effort this afternoon was two helicopters and a two-engine aircraft. One of the helicopters has landed in a village which is thought to be near the vicinity of a possible crash site. And I say a possible crash site because PNG authorities, PNG Airlines and Australian officials are relying upon information relayed by villagers on the ground.
But on the basis of that information, PNG authorities believe that they have narrowed the search area to a possible crash site. Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, the PNG search effort will be complemented with two additional helicopters, and we hope that with the disposition of those additional resources by PNG authorities that two Australian consular officers from our High Commission in Port Moresby will be able to get on the ground in that vicinity.
So far as the search and rescue assets deployed by the Australian Government, as I say my colleague the Defence Minister Senator Faulkner is detailing these to the Senate but can I summarise that for you.
HMAS Success is being diverted from its current location near the Torres Strait and will arrive off Papua New Guinea coast by first light tomorrow. HMAS Success has a Sean King helicopter which will be available, again as I say weather permitting, for search and rescue.
A Caribou Airplane is currently in Port Moresby and available for tasking for search and rescue from first light tomorrow.
A C130 aircraft with an aero-medical capability will depart overnight and is expected to be ready to assist tomorrow morning. It will have on board a fully equipped ground party with search and recovery assets.
Two Blackhawk helicopters will be deployed tomorrow morning from the Sydney area via a C17 aircraft.
And in addition to those Defence Force assets, the, Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Authority has deployed a Dornier 328 aircraft which departed this afternoon for search and rescue efforts.
That is the combined efforts of Papua New Guinea and Australia. We hope that tomorrow the search will be able to commence at first light. But as I say, the advice this afternoon has been a search which has been seriously hampered by the inclement weather and the rugged terrain.
I have spoken on a number of occasions to our High Commissioner in Port Moresby. Every resource of our High Commission is being effectively diverted in this effort. The Crisis Centre in Canberra was activated this afternoon and a Crisis Centre has been established in the Mission in Port Moresby. And as I say, we hope to have two officers on the ground, on the Kokoda track, in that general vicinity tomorrow.
Can I conclude my opening remarks by saying that it is with a lot of regret that I confirm nine Australian passengers on board the plane. We have very grave fears for their safety and well being and we will remain in constant contact with their families as every endeavour is made to search, discover and rescue the plane and its passengers and crew.
I'm happy to respond to your questions but I do have an obligation to go to the House in the not too distant future.
QUESTION: Minister, is there any type of surveillance plane that might be able to find the wreckage?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well on that front if I can say that that would be related to the Defence assets. I'm not the best person to ask of that. My understanding is, and I'd encourage you to check the detail with Defence, my understanding is that both the Caribou and other assets being deployed by Defence have that capacity.
It is also the case that on my advice the plane itself, the PNG Airlines plane, has an emergency beacon but the airline and PNG authorities advise that there has been no signal from the beacon in the course of the afternoon.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, there were reports from PNG that there had been an attempted landing of plane and then it was reported missing. Has the Government got any information on this?
STEPHEN SMITH: I'm not in a position to confirm that one way or the other. We have been proceeding from the first moment that we were advised, which was in the course of Question Time, that the plane was missing.
The most important thing was to make every effort to deploy as much search and rescue effort as we could in conjunction with the Papua New Guinea Government. Both by the capability that was available in Papua New Guinea and capability we had on the ground.
Our priority has been to effect that effort and also to make contact with the families and in course of the last half hour the last of the families of the nine passengers were advised by consular officers from DFAT in Canberra of the missing whereabouts of the plane.
QUESTION: Was this a plane that was part of a group of planes that was on a trip to this area? Can you confirm that?
STEPHEN SMITH: On my advice this is the only plane that is missing from PNG Airlines which does a regular route from Port Moresby to Kokoda, a very popular and iconic destination for Australians.
My advice is that authorities and the airline became alerted to the absence of the plane CG4684 when a plane which had departed subsequently arrived first. That triggered the alarm bells.
I've seen references to a number of planes but we are focusing on this plane which has now been missing for some time. And we have no advice or information or concern for any other plane or group of passengers.
QUESTION: So you are not providing consular services to any other Australians who might have been part of the party and who are now in Kokoda?
STEPHEN SMITH: I'm not aware that anyone in Papua New Guinea or Kokoda who falls into that description has requested consular assistance. Of course if anyone requests consular assistance in these circumstances we would of course do our very level best to provide it. But our priority has been to take every step to identity the Australians who are passengers on the plane.
Once we had satisfied ourselves of the identity of the Australians through manifest and passport checks, we then set about the urgent task of informing the families in Australia. And, as I say, in the last half hour the ninth family was contacted.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, a number of Australians have died in plane crashes in PNG in the last decade. Has the Australian Government ever had discussions with the Government in Port Moresby about the safety record of the planes there?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well two things, firstly our travel advice draws attention to the need for people who are travelling generally, but also to PNG, to consult the relevant Transport Department aviation advice. I am not aware of those details and these matters will of course be matters to be directed to Civil Aviation Authorities and my colleague the Minister for Transport.
Let me also make this point, at this stage our focus is single-mindedly on doing everything we can to locate the plane and to find its passengers, all 13 of them. We are working very closely with the PNG Government in that effort. And we hope, weather permitting, that a substantially enhanced search and rescue effort can commence tomorrow morning.
QUESTION: Can you confirm whether that nine Australians include the pilots or the air crew?
STEPHEN SMITH: I can't confirm that. All I'm in a position to confirm, and as I say, whilst we have contacted the nine Australian families I'm not in a position to go into any more detail for a range of obvious reasons. I can though confirm, nine Australians on the plane from Queensland and Victoria, one Japanese citizen and three Papua New Guineans.
QUESTION: You said that there was a possible crash site that was being investigated near a village. Can you explain more about that? Was there a report of a crash near a village?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well as I say, I don't put it higher than PNG Airlines and PNG authorities believe they have narrowed the search area to a general vicinity of what may be a crash site area, going on advice and information from local people and local villagers. There is a suggestion that in the general vicinity a crash may have occurred. I don't put any higher than that and I say that advisedly. But PNG Airlines and the PNG authorities are proceeding on the basis that they have narrowed the search area to what may be a possible crash site.
I'm being told that I need to get to the House. Thanks very much. Thanks for coming out so late.
[ENDS]
Media inquiries
Foreign Minister's office (02) 6277 7500