Airlines PNG Flight 1600
de Havilland Canada DHC-8-103 · Forced landing following dual propeller failure
From Nadzab Tomodachi International Airport (LAE) to Madang Airport (MAG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG12WA002
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Final · AIC final report, 15 Jun 2014
- Event fatalities
- 28 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 32
- Survivors
- 4
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 4
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
de Havilland Canada DHC-8-103
- Flight
- CG1600
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-8
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- P2-MCJ
- Operator
- Airlines PNG
- Onboard fatalities
- 28
- Route
- From Nadzab Tomodachi International Airport (LAE)To Madang Airport (MAG)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 13 October 2011, Airlines PNG Flight 1600, a Dash 8 regional aircraft on a domestic flight from Lae to Madang, Papua New Guinea, crash-landed in a forested area near the mouth of the Guabe River, after losing all engine power. Only 4 of the 32 people on board survived. It is the second-deadliest plane crash in the history of Papua New Guinea, behind a Lockheed L-14 crash, with 37 fatalities.
The subsequent investigation found that the flight crew retarded the throttle levers below the lowest position allowable in flight (known as flight idle), causing both propellers to overspeed and leading to a complete loss of engine power. A 'beta lockout' mechanism that would have prevented the overspeed even in case of erroneous power lever setting was available but not installed on the accident aircraft. Installation of such a mechanism became subsequently mandatory on all DHC-8 aircraft worldwide. The investigation also found that, once the overspeed occurred, the pilots failed to follow any of the applicable emergency procedures, causing the plane to quickly descend, crashing in four minutes, as compared to more than nine minutes and gliding an additional 35 km towards the airport, that the procedures would have given.
Accident
On the afternoon of 13 October 2011, the Airlines PNG Dash 8 was conducting a regular public transport flight from Lae Nadzab Airport, to Madang Airport. On board were two flight crew, a flight attendant, and 29 passengers.
The plane departed from Nadzab at 16:47 local time. The captain, 64-year-old Australian William "Bill" Spencer, had logged 18,200 hours of flying experience, of which 500 were on the Dash 8. The first officer was 40-year-old New Zealander Campbell Wagstaff, with 2,725 hours logged, of which 390 were on the Dash 8. Spencer was the handling pilot. The aircraft climbed to 16,000 ft with an estimated arrival time at Madang of 17:17. Once in the cruise, the flight crew diverted right of the flight planned track to avoid thunderstorms and cloud.
The planned route required a steep descent into Madang and, although the aircraft was descending steeply, the propellers were left at their cruise setting of 900 rpm, causing the airspeed to increase. Neither pilot noticed the airspeed increasing towards the maximum operating speed (VMO); as they were "distracted by the weather." When the aircraft reached VMO as it passed through 10,500 ft, with a rate of descent between 3,500 and 4,200 ft/min, the VMO overspeed warning sounded.
Spencer asked Wagstaff to decrease the propeller speed to 1,050 rpm to slow the aircraft down. He raised the nose of the aircraft in response to the warning and this reduced the rate of descent to about 2,000 ft/min, however, the VMO overspeed warning continued.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An investigation was carried out by the Accident Investigation Commission of Papua New Guinea (AIC) with assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The final report was issued on 15 June 2014. The AIC found that the pilot in command pulled the power levers beyond the flight idle gate and into the ground beta range, while attempting to slow the aircraft down during descent in bad weather. Ground beta (the propeller's reverse pitch range) should only be used for decelerating or reversing on the ground, as in flight it can cause uncontrollable propeller overspeed and damage to the engines.
The mechanism that alerts pilots that they are selecting beta range had been the subject of previous investigations and it was found that a manufacturer-approved service centre had a history of releasing defective parts back to operators.
Following a number of previous incidents of inadvertent selection of Ground Beta range on Dash 8 aircraft that resulted in serious damage to engines, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration mandated that an additional safeguard was required to be fitted to aircraft operated by American airlines. This system, called a Beta Lockout, was developed by the manufacturer and completely prevents inadvertent selection of Ground Beta range while airborne at high speeds, but operators outside the U.S. were not notified or required to fit the modification. The report also found that the crew had to deal with an overspeed of both propellers that caused large amounts of drag making the aircraft extremely difficult to control and that there was significant noise caused by the propeller tips exceeding the speed of sound and also smoke in the cockpit and cabin due to the damage to the engines and bleed air system.
The report criticised the pilots for their failures during the 4 minutes and 18 seconds following the double propeller overspeed, during which:
Text from the Wikipedia article “Airlines PNG Flight 1600” (revision 1374673061, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On 13 Oct 2011, at about 1715, at about 10,000 feet during the descent for landing, the overspeed warning horn of a PNG Airlines DHC-8-102 aircraft, Papua New Guinea registration P2-MCJ sounded. At 1717, the crew made a MAYDAY call to ATC, indicating that they were experiencing an in-flight emergency and that both engines had stopped. The aircraft force-landed on sparsely timbered terrain on the northern side of the Buang River, 33 km south east of Madang Township. During the impact sequence, the airplane was severely damaged while colliding with trees and the ground, and an intense fuel-fed fire began.
The Director of Air Safety Investigation of Papua New Guinea is investigating the accident. As the state of manufacture of the propeller and propeller control system, the NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on Civil Aviation to assist the Director of Air Safety Investigation of Papua New Guinea in their investigation.
All inquiries concerning this accident should be directed to the Director of Air Safety Investigation of Papua New Guinea at:
PAPUA NEW GUINEA Director of Air Safety Investigation Department of Civil Aviation P.O. Box 684 Boroko, NCD Papua New Guinea
Tel.: (675) 271764 Fax: (675) 272201 AFTN: AYPYYAYX Telex: 22203 NE
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Airlines PNG Flight 1600
- Article
- Airlines PNG Flight 1600
- Revision
- 1374673061 · 2026-09-13 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q3501432
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ENG12WA002
- Event ID
- 20111020X45259
- Case number
- ENG12WA002
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Airlines PNG Flight 1600" (page 33401734, revision 1374673061); merged with NTSB case ENG12WA002 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ENG12WA002
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) final report
- Ground fatalities
- Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) final report
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Airlines PNG Flight 1600" and NTSB case ENG12WA002, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- Checked against the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) final report (2014-06-15) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Taken from the report: ground fatalities. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type and type of operation.