Freighter Crash at Honiara

A Boeing 737-300F freighter on a flight from Queensland suffered a right-side landing gear collapse Sunday, while on landing roll-out at Honiara International Airport.

The NZ-registered aircraft flown by Airwork Flight Operations slid on the runway, suffering extensive damage. The three crew escaped safely.

The flight was a routine movement from Brisbane to Honiara on behalf of Brisbane-based Pacific Air Express (http://www.pacificairexpress.com.au) which uses Airwork freighters on its Pacific Island services.

While the aircraft carry the distinctive Toll livery, this relates to their operations within Australia. PAE has long had an arrangement with Airwork to charter the freighters when not required for the main Toll contract.

The incident restricted movements at Honiara International, which is also widely known as Henderson Field, until equipment could be brought in to move the wreckage.

Airwork Flight Operations is part of the Auckland-based Airwork Group ( http://www.airwork.co.nz ) which, as we have reported, had an enormously successful IPO recently. The group has a large fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, also undertaking aviation engineering.