Another plane crash occurred in Papua Tengah. The Sam Air, de Havilland DHC-6-300, Reg. PK - SMS, which on Monday (23/01) was veered right off to the right upon landing on runway 16 at the Melawak airport, Beoga, Puncak Regency, Papua Province, was carrying 11 passengers and 3 crew as well as 690kg of cargo. There were no injuries, the right hand wing of the aircraft sustained substantial damage however.
Nyoman Punia, Chief of Polres Puncak AKBP explained, from reports received, the incident occurred shortly after the plane piloted by Alexsander Agapa and Co-Pilot Desly Putut Priambudi and technician Minarno landed.
The plane, which departed from Moses Kilangin Airport, Timika, was carrying 11 passengers and also carrying food.
From the pilot's statement, said Nyoman Punia, it was revealed that when landing there was a pond of water at the end of the airstrip so he tried to avoid it by landing in the middle of the airstrip with a right angle which resulted in the plane crashing into a tree beside the airstrip.
"However, to ascertain the cause of the accident, we are waiting for the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC)," he said.
The police chief stated that as a result of the incident the front tire burst and the right end wing was heavily damaged.
"The plane has been towed to the side of the airport with the help of the community," said Nyoman Punia.
Puncak Regency is one of the regencies (kabupaten) in the Indonesian province of Central Papua. It covers an area of 7,396.47 km2, and had a population of 93,218 at the 2010 Census[2] and 114,741 at the 2020 Census.[3] The administrative centre is at Ilaga. The name of the regency is currently being changed to Puncak Papua Regency.[4]