Recovery team retrieves Samoa Airways Twin Otter

By Andrew Curran.

Specialist crews have extracted a Samoa Airways DHC-6-300 Twin Otter from a ditch at American Samoa's Fitiuta Airport (FTI) almost three weeks after the aircraft veered off the runway.

Personnel from Samoa Airways, the Port Administration of American Samoa (PAAS) and Unity Aviation Canada watched as local contractor Silva Group used a 12-tonne mobile crane to lift the damaged aircraft onto the back of a flatbed truck on August 14.

The incident occurred on July 28 while the Twin Otter, registered as 5W-FAY (msn 690), was on its landing roll. No significant injuries were reported, but the aircraft, which had only recently returned to service following a multimillion-dollar overhaul in Canada, was extensively damaged.

Working out how to retrieve the aircraft and gathering the resources to do so took some time.

The Port Administration of American Samoa, which operates the airport, called the recovery a "high-precision" operation.

Canadian team flies in to help with aircraft recovery

Specialist aircraft engineers from Unity Aviation Canada flew into American Samoa from Canada on August 12. The following day, they joined a technical team from Samoa Airways and PAAS personnel at Fitiuta to begin preparing for the extraction.

Silva Group's crane carried out a multi-stage lifting and rigging operation the next day, August 14.

The crane moved the aircraft from the crash site onto pre-prepared ground, where the damaged nose wheel assembly was temporarily stabilised using pallets and tyres. 5W-FAY's nose landing gear had collapsed during the runway excursion.

A second lift rotated the aircraft 180 degrees before positioning the front section onto a flatbed truck. While the aircraft was secured on the flatbed, mechanical crews replaced one of the damaged main landing gear tyres.

The truck then transported the Twin Otter to a staging area away from the airport's main operating zones, where a final crane lift moved it from the flatbed. Pallets and tyres were again used to prop up the front of the aircraft, while straps secured it to the apron.

Twin Otter to be dismantled and shipped back to Apia

Unity Aviation engineers will now undertake a detailed assessment of the damage before dismantling the aircraft on site, packing the parts into two shipping containers and transporting them back to Apia.

Aero South Pacific has contacted the Samoan Government, which owns Samoa Airways and has overseen its response to the incident, for comment.

Samoa Airways had spent approximately WST12 million (USD4.4 million) overhauling two of its ageing Twin Otters, with Unity Aviation carrying out the work. After spending around nine months away undergoing the overhaul, 5W-FAY returned to Samoa in early July to considerable fanfare. It re-entered service on July 21 – just seven days before the Fitiuta incident.

Photos: Port Authority of American Samoa.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com