{"id":4916,"date":"2018-06-14T06:49:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T10:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=4916"},"modified":"2018-06-18T06:57:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T10:57:07","slug":"dash-8-set-on-fire-in-papua-new-guinea-airport-closed-indefinitely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/dash-8-set-on-fire-in-papua-new-guinea-airport-closed-indefinitely\/","title":{"rendered":"Dash 8 set on fire in Papua New Guinea, airport closed indefinitely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AYMN\/Mendi<\/strong> has been closed indefinitely after protesters set fire to and destroyed an Air Niugini Dash 8 aircraft, which had just arrived from Port Moresby. The protest was in response to a court ruling confirming the election of the Southern Highlands governor William Powi.<\/p>\n<p>Radio New Zealand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radionz.co.nz\/news\/pacific\/359621\/protesters-in-png-s-mendi-torch-plane-shut-airport\">reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;(Initially) the local police station commander Gideon Kauke had said police were guarding the aircraft to ensure there was no further damage, after its tyres had been flattened.<\/p>\n<p>But he said his team of about ten police couldn&#8217;t contain a mob of uncountable numbers, particularly after missiles were thrown, forcing them to retreat; &#8220;we were guarding the plane but compared to them we were outnumbered and they came in all directions, all corners. Missiles were thrown, bush knives were thrown.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kauke said some of the protestors, who continue to behave menacingly in Mendi as their numbers build up, were carrying guns. He said the protest was in response to a court ruling in Waigani confirming the election of the Southern Highlands governor William Powi.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/smartraveller.gov.au\/Countries\/pacific\/Pages\/papua_new_guinea.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a>\u00a0is cautioning all to\u00a0<strong>\u201creconsider your need to travel\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0to the regions affected by the unrest and to also\u00a0<strong>\u201cexercise a general degree of caution\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>for the whole of PNG.<\/p>\n<p>The local NOTAM says it all.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>A0773\/18<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<strong>AD CLSD TO ALL ACFT OPS DUE CIVIL UNREST.<\/strong>\u00a014 JUN 05:35 2018 UNTIL 13 JUL 06:00 2018 ESTIMATED. CREATED: 14 JUN 05:52 2018<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-4930\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle-748x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"925\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle-748x1024.png 748w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle-219x300.png 219w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle-768x1051.png 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle-676x925.png 676w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/S-angle.png 1048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting indicates that the aircraft was shot at on landing, deflating the tyres.<\/p>\n<p>Are you currently in PNG and can fill us in on more? Please comment below, or <a href=\"blog@fsbureau.org\">email us<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AYMN\/Mendi has been closed indefinitely after protesters set fire to and destroyed an Air Niugini&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,319,876],"tags":[1179,1176,1177,1178,1180,515,648,860],"class_list":{"0":"post-4916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"category-news-item","9":"category-safe-airspace","10":"tag-airport-closed","11":"tag-aymn","12":"tag-ayta","13":"tag-aywd","14":"tag-dash-8","15":"tag-papua-new-guinea","16":"tag-risk","17":"tag-security"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4916"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4963,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions\/4963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}