North Coast Aviation plane wreckage found, survivors yet to be sighted

NBC News has confirmed that the wreckage of a plane belonging to the North Coast Aviation has been spotted from midair by the Manolos Aviation's rescue helicopter, but the passengers are yet to be sighted.

This is after the plane believed to be transporting government officials from the Tewai Siassi district to Lae, didn't arrive in Lae on Saturday as scheduled.

Speaking to NBC News, the Deputy Prime Minister and member for Lae John Rosso confirmed, that he had voluntarily gotten on the first helicopter flight out of Lae at 5:30 this morning with the Manolos Aviation rescue team to the crash site.

Rosso mentioned that though the helicopter he was in couldn't land, it was more important that the grid coordinates of the exact location has been identified.

The Deputy Prime Minister says, he cannot specifically comment about the survivors at this stage, as a specialist team from the PNG Defence Force carrying winch equipment is currently being deployed to the crash site by the Manolos Aviation helicopters.

The North Coast Aviation aircraft was supposed to have arrived in Lae at 10 o'clock in the morning on Saturday but didn't after the thunderstorm on Friday night.