The only survivor of a plane crash in Papua New Guinea has been named and is now recovering in a Queensland Hospital. New Zealand-born Kelby Cheyne, 25, was one of five people involved in the crash.
On Aug. 31 the Trans Air jet slid off a wet runway and burst into flames. The initial fear was that no one survived the crash on the remote island of Misima, off Papua New Guinea.
Mr. Cheyne’s stepmother told Toowoomba’s newspaper The Chronicle, that in the back of her mind she thought they might have “got it wrong.”
“We just want to talk to him. We still haven't spoken to him,” Mrs. Cheyne said.
Mr. Cheyne has a commercial pilot’s licence and was the co-pilot of the crashed plane.
Three Australians and a New Zealander were killed in the crash.
Mr. Cheyne is now recuperating in a Townsville hospital, north Queensland, where he was flown by chartered plane according to ABC News.
He was being treated for bruising and it is thought he may also have fractures.
With only two air crash investigators, PNG's Air Investigation Commission concedes that it wasn't in a position to carry out a quick examination of the cause of the plane crash, says ABC News.
A report on last year's plane crash near Kokoda where 13 people, which included Australians, perished, has yet to be presented by the Commission.
There were conflicting stories about the crash and how Mr. Cheyne managed to survive.
“We heard one story that the villagers pulled Kelby from the plane just before it exploded.
“And there was another story that he was thrown from the cockpit when the plane crashed, just before it exploded,” Mrs Cheyne told The Chronicle.
