Qualla: Airlines PNG Flight 1600

Airlines PNG Flight 1600: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC), Public domain. Most of the people on board were parents. Their children were graduating from Divine Word University in Madang, and thanksgiving ceremonies were planned for the next morning. The Dash 8 lifted off from Lae at 16:47 on 13 October 2011, carrying two flight crew, a flight attendant, and twenty-nine passengers into weather that had already forced the pilots to divert right of their planned track to skirt thunderstorms. A ceremony was waiting in Madang. Only one passenger would arrive.

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Image: Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) | Public domain

Airlines PNG Flight 1600: A Mechanical Detail That Killed Twenty-Eight

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC), Public domain. The crash hinged on a small metal barrier called a flight idle gate. On a de Havilland Dash 8, pulling the power levers past that gate in flight releases the propellers into their reverse-pitch range, which is meant only for decelerating on the ground. The manufacturer had develo...

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Image: Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) | Public domain

Airlines PNG Flight 1600: Descent Into Weather

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Goldsztajn, CC BY-SA 3.0. The route into Madang called for a steep descent. The captain, sixty-four-year-old Australian William "Bill" Spencer, had logged 18,200 flight hours across his career but only 500 on the Dash 8. His first officer, Campbell Wagstaff, was forty, a New Zealander with 390 hours on th...

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Image: Goldsztajn | CC BY-SA 3.0

Airlines PNG Flight 1600: The Sound of Sound Itself

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC), Public domain. What happened next produced a noise the survivors and investigators would never forget. With the propellers freed into reverse pitch, both overspeed uncontrollably. Their tips accelerated past the speed of sound, generating a sonic roar that filled the cabin. Smoke seeped into th...

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Image: Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) | Public domain

Airlines PNG Flight 1600: Candles at Divine Word

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC), Public domain. The graduation ceremony went ahead in Madang without the parents. Four years later, on the anniversary of the crash, students and staff at Divine Word University gathered for a candlelight memorial, the small flames standing in for the mothers and fathers who had been on their wa...

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Image: Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) | Public domain