Air Transport

Rescuers have found the de Havilland Canada Twin Otter that crashed yesterday in Papua New Guinea and confirmed that all 13 on board died.

The Airlines of Papua New Guinea Twin Otter has been located "up near the Kokoda airstrip", says an airline spokesman in Port Moresby, who was unable to elaborate further on the aircraft's location.

He says a search and rescue team from a mining company located the crash site today and winched people down to inspect the site and a Papua New Guinean police search and rescue team also inspected the site today.

The mining company used a Bell 412 helicopter and the police team used a Bell 206, he adds.

A landing pad has been created so that a Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter can be used tomorrow to collect the bodies, says the spokesman.

There were 11 passengers and two pilots on board and all died, he says.

The Twin Otter, local registration P2-MCB, departed Port Moresby yesterday at 10:53 but as the aircraft approached its destination, the Kokoda airstrip, it lost radio contact.

Papua New Guinea's CAA and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will be investigating the crash, says the spokesman.

Most of those on board were tourists. The Kokoda trail is a tourist destination because during the Second World War there was intense fighting there between Australian and Japanese forces.