Kokoda crash backs back a lot of memories

By PAUL OATES

 

This latest air crash brings back a lot of memories and not all of them good.

Every sympathy should be extended to the families of the victims.

Some thought should also be given to those who have unenviable task of going in and investigating the crash site.

The role of the local people is very often overlooked.

 I wonder if the media ever give that a thought when they have a 'feeding frenzy' on the disaster but then quickly lose interest in what some have to do afterwards.

The concentration on the crash and the victims and their family's subsequent grief is almost macabre and borders on the sensational, an aspect some have already commented on when media coverage of PNG is concerned.

Flying in PNG should never be taken for granted.

The number of times I have left my fingerprints in the aluminium seat frames of small planes in PNG is too numerous to mention.

Isn't it amazing that now PNG is a separate and sovereign country, the amount of assistance being offered to help with this exercise seems to dwarf any provided to us when TPNG was an Australian Territory?

We had to cope with similar situations, often with limited assistance from Australia, who had very little idea of our role and it sadly appears, still don't, if the recent Government reticence in supporting Chris Viner-Smith's long, hard slog and Keith Jackson's efforts in obtaining some recognition for former kiaps.