WIX Archives

Papua New Guinea

Posted by Graham Orphan on Tue Dec 11, 2001 08:17:37 AM

Number two in my delayed follow-ups.
I've been watching the PNG situation closely for quite some time. My concern is and always has been that aircraft left where they are will only wither into the ground. The deterioration seen on most of the few surviving airframes over the last 10 years has been equal to the deterioration over the previous 50 years. In another 10 years you'll only find aluminium oxide in the approximate shape of the aircraft they once were. Some of the Japanese wrecks are that way now, so that above ground wrecks are rapidly starting to look like ocean floor wrecks in condition.
The other, perhaps more pressing concern is the inclination of villagers to go to a known wreck and chop it into small pieces with axes and bush knives to facilitate easy transport to scrap merchants who then pay a pittance for the metal. I have seen the evidence of this, including a potentially Zero in the Rabaul area just three years ago, which was chopped up and sold to the scrapper for 100 kina (around US$35.00). This activity is illegal of course, but the PNG authorities are not equipped to police it.
Now the couple of people who have successfully extracted the handful of wrecks from PNG over the last decade have done so with full permits from the national authority, and only after building up relationships with the national museum people over many years. I'm pleased to see any aircraft recovered, almost under any circumstances, if it is going to stop it from being chopped up, scrapped or left to rot. Additionally, some of the recovered aircraft will be making their way back to PNG for display in what will eventually be a most impressive museum. A case in point is the beautifully restored A-20G Hell'n Pelican II (42-86786) which is poised to return to its former battle ground once it has a completed display building to move into.
Cheers - GMO

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