1996 Mendi air accident
Milne Bay Air De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter · Bad weather, collision with a mountain
From Bosavi Airfield, Bosavi, Papua New Guinea to Mendi Airport, Mendi, Papua New Guinea
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 20 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- 0
- 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
- Charter & commuter
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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-MBB
- Operator
- Milne Bay Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 20
- Route
- From Bosavi Airfield, Bosavi, Papua New GuineaTo Mendi Airport, Mendi, Papua New Guinea
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1996 Mendi air accident occurred on 7 July 1996, when a Milne Bay Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter en route from Bosavi to Mendi in Papua New Guinea struck a mountain near Mendi in bad weather. On board were the pilot and 19 passengers, and all were killed in the accident.
The pilot of the aircraft, which was on a charter flight, was from Australia and all the passengers were citizens of Papua New Guinea. The aircraft struck a rock face eight kilometres north-east of Mendi in a mountainous area that the authorities said was difficult for pilots even in good weather. At the time of the accident the weather was bad and cloudy.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Finnish Wikipedia article “Mendin lento-onnettomuus 1996” (revision 17450336, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Finnish Wikipedia article: Mendin lento-onnettomuus 1996
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 17450336 · 2018-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q55698529
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- fi Wikipedia article "Mendin lento-onnettomuus 1996" (page 1464231, revision 17450336), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A single-pilot Milne Bay Air Twin Otter carrying 19 passengers on a charter flight: an on-demand charter by a small operator. The article: "The pilot of the aircraft, which was on a charter flight, was from Australia"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Finnish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
- The Finnish article's text gives 7 July 1996; its infobox and cited Aviation Safety Network record give 9 July 1996, used here.