PACIFIC Island Air has confirmed that no injuries were sustained by two pilots and three passengers when one of their aircraft developed a mechanical failure before take-off last week.
The incident occurred in Yasawa last Tuesday.
Company general manager Tuni Beddoes said the Britten Norman Islander aircraft developed a mechanical fault and rolled off the runway, damaging the wingtip.
“The aircraft was ‘not taking off’ and the engines were ‘shut off’ at that time,” he said.
“No passengers or crew were injured. Pacific Island Air flight crew filed their report with the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji and they supported the CAAF officials during their investigations into the incident.”
Mr Beddoes said their engineering team had completed an assessment on a repair scheme.
“Work will commence once a timeline on required parts are identified.”
CAAF CEO Netava Waqa said inspectors had travelled to the site to conduct an investigation and reviewed the aircraft and damage.
“Due to the nature of the event, the investigation is being conducted through the legislated mandatory occurrence reporting process,” he said.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the cause or issue was mechanically related.”
Meanwhile, CAAF said the investigation into the cause of a helicopter crash on Beqa earlier this week was continuing.
