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Source: ONE News
A medical evacuation flight heading from Samoa to Melbourne was forced to ditch into the sea near Norfolk Island on Wednesday night.
A government spokesman told ONE News the plane was returning from Apia, Samoa to pick up fuel but was unable to land because of rain and fog.
Norfolk Island finance minister Neville Christian told reporter Garth Bray that the pilot made several attempts to land before choosing to ditch into the ocean as the plane began to run low on fuel.
The aircraft, believed to be a West Wing, sank fairly quickly.
The incident happened at about 10pm on Wednesday and although a rescue signal was briefly detected authorities could not get a co-ordinate.
A New Zealand P3 Orion was due to be despatched at daylight on Thursday but watchers around the coast spotted the lights on the lifejackets and rescuers were able to direct boats to the area.
Christian says the six people on board had to keep themselves afloat for about 90 minutes before the boats could reach them.
He says they did not have enough time to get the liferaft out of the aircraft and had to share three lifejackets between six people.
He says the sea conditions were relatively calm where the plane came down but the water is still fairly cold at this time of the year. All the people on board were taken to hospital by ambulance but Christian says all except one person were able to walk. No one has life threatening injuries.
"It was a remarkable effort that they all survived and all credit must go to the crew on board," says Christian who is the minister responsible for emergency services.
Norfolk Island is a fuel transit point for ferry and medivac flights but while they have been involved with sea rescues Christian says this is the first time they have had to put their emergency services into action for an air incident.
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