FED: Plane crash bodies due to arrive in Brisbane

AAP General News (Australia)
08-26-2009
FED: Plane crash bodies due to arrive in Brisbane

BRISBANE, Aug 26 AAP - The bodies of nine Australians who died in a plane crash near
the Kokoda Track will arrive at Brisbane airport just after noon (AEST) on Wednesday.

Before dawn on Wednesday Papua New Guinea police escorted three funeral-home mini vans
to the Port Moresby airport so the bodies of seven Victorians and two Queenslanders on
board the doomed charter flight en route to Kokoda could be laid to rest in their respective
homes.

The bodies of the two Queenslanders, Dr June Canavan and Keith Gracie, are expected
to be taken off the aircraft at Brisbane airport around 12.20pm, with the remaining bodies
being transported to Melbourne.

Dr Canavan, 59, a sports medicine specialist from Maroochydore on Queensland's Sunshine
Coast, was raising money for a school in Tanzania.

Her friend Mr Gracie, 54, a construction company owner, was lending her his support
and fulfilling a long-held "dream" to walk the track.

After an agonising wait for families all 13 victims of the August 11 plane crash were
formally identified by PNG authorities earlier this week.

An Airlines PNG flight carrying two PNG pilots, nine Australians and a Japanese national
crashed into the Owen Stanley Ranges about 1.5km north of the PNG village of Isurava at
an altitude of 5,500 feet (1,650m) two weeks ago.

On board were nine Australians making the pilgrimage to hike the Kokoda Track, where
600 Aussie diggers died fighting Japanese forces.

A massive operation by the Australian Defence Force, Australian Federal Police and
Australian Transport Safety Bureau, along with PNG counterparts, spent several days in
the dense jungle piecing together remains and clues as to what went wrong.

A Japanese forensic anthropologist flew to Port Moresby to assist in the difficult
job of identifying the remains.

PNG's Civil Aviation Authority director Joseph Kintau has said a report on the cause
of the crash was expected in mid-September.

AAP pjo/mmr

KEYWORD: PNG PLANE UPDATE

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