DFA to assist 9 Pinoy seafarers on board Air Niugini flight when it crashed



The Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday said it is assisting nine Filipino seafarers who were aboard an Air Niugini flight that crashed in Micronesia on Friday.
The Filipinos were said to be on their way to the Philippines for a vacation when the plane crash landed into a lagoon after attempting to land at Chuuk Island Airport, Consul General Marciano C. de Borja of the Philippine Consulate General in Agana, Guam told Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano in a report.
The nine Filipinos will take other flights to Manila, Borja said.
The Consulate General is coordinating with Air Niugini for their luggage, he added.
The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 plane which was about to have a stopover on its flight from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby ended up half submerged in the Chuuk lagoon after missing the runway, Agence France-Presse reported.
Passengers were forced to swim for their lives.
No one was seriously injured, according to Air Niugini.
The DFA said one passenger was missing but the other 46 passengers were all safe. —KG, GMA News

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