3 bodies recovered at PNG plane crash site

Searchers recovered three bodies Thursday from the site where an airplane crashed and killed 13 people in the rugged mountains of Papua New Guinea, an official said.

None of the people on board Tuesday's Airlines PNG flight survived. Nine Australians, three Papua New Guineans and a Japanese were flying to the Kokoda tourist area when the plane vanished in bad weather on approach to the airport.

Civil Aviation Authority director Joseph Kintau said the recovered bodies remained at the crash site for now.

"There is a lot of work going on at the site but conditions are very difficult," Kintau said.

A number of Australian and local officials had trekked to the site Wednesday and other rescue workers and investigators were trying to fly in to a makeshift helipad but were stymied by bad weather Thursday.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told parliament that Australia had deployed helicopters and dozens of police and military personnel to assist in recovery efforts as well as four specialist investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to help Papua New Guinea authorities collect and analyze evidence.

Officials were not immediately sure what caused the crash. In a statement, Airlines PNG said the plane's two pilots were "highly experienced."

Papua New Guinea Transport Minister Don Polye said Wednesday that he has ordered an investigation into the airline. He would not speculate on the cause of the crash.

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The twin-engine plane left the capital of Port Moresby en route to an airport near Kokoda Track, a mountainous 60-mile (100-kilometer) trail. The plane's crew radioed air traffic controllers as it was approaching the airstrip, but the aircraft never landed, said Allen Tyson, a spokesman for Airlines PNG.

Eight Australian tourists and an Australian tour guide had planned to walk the trail as part of a trek organized by the adventure tour company No Roads Expeditions, the company said. Another guide from Papua New Guinea also was on board, it said.

Former Kokoda Track Authority CEO Warren Bartlett urged Papua New Guinea to upgrade the airstrip, saying it lacks white markers that would assist pilots landing their planes.

"It should be the initiative of the Papua New Guinea government to make a commitment to upgrade the airstrip and ask for donor aid assistance, possibly, from Australia or Japan or the World Bank or wherever," Bartlett told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.

A 2006 inquiry into the need to upgrade the airstrip due to the increasing number of tourists found the upgrades would cost 3.5 million Australian dollars ($2.9 million).