Pohnpei Airport Remains Closed By APA Plane
Pohnpei’s only airport has been closed to international air traffic since Friday night when an Asia Pacific Airlines’ Boeing-727 went off the runway and ended up stuck with its nose landing gear in the lagoon water at the end of the runway. However, the airline said today it will try to move the aircraft tomorrow, and if the operation is successful, it could allow the Pohnpei airfield to reopen.
Continental Micronesia was forced to over-fly Pohnpei Saturday, Monday and today on its Island Hopper service that connects Pohnpei with Guam and Honolulu.
Continental is the only international passenger carrier that currently services Pohnpei, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia.
APA officials had hoped to move the plane Monday, but were unsuccessful and the disabled plane remained in its location just off the end of the runway Tuesday.
A “decision on how to remove or salvage the aircraft from the resting site which is right in the safety zone has been delayed until further notice,” the FSM government’s Information Services said in a release Tuesday.
Although the plane is not directly on the runway, because it is just a few feet from the end of the runway, the accident has forced an indefinite closure of Pohnpei’s airstrip.
“The aircraft departed the right side of the runway several hundred feet from the end of runway 9 and came to rest with the nose wheel in the water,” Mike Quinn, APA’s President, said on Sunday. “The nose landing gear is damaged.”
Quinn today told Pacific Magazine that APA hopes to pull the stricken Boeing 727 out of the lagoon tomorrow.
“It is a tricky move to do without causing any more harm to the aircraft or environment. At this time, we expect to be able to repair the aircraft, but of course will not know the entire extent of the damage until we get it out of the lagoon,” Quinn said.
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