Lulutai Airline Saab 340 aircraft that slid off the runway at Tonga's Fua'amotu airport on Friday. 8 December 2023 Photo: Facebook.xom/Paongo F George
A preliminary report into the Lulutai Airlines plane incident in Tonga has found a host of safety problems with the aircraft.
The aircraft lost control while taxiing at Fua'amotu Airport on Tongatapu last December, hitting a cement block on the side of the apron.
The SAAB 340 aircraft, carrying 35 passengers, was returning to Fua'amotu after aborting its trip to Vava'u due to a hydraulic leak, according to the crew.
A Civil Aviation Authority report said the source of the hydraulic leak has not been identified, because of the damage to the undercarriage of the plane.
The report says the aircraft had no brakes as it approached the terminal, and the flight recorder had no data from the flight,
RNZ Pacific's correspondent in Tonga, Kalafi Moala, told RNZ Pacific's senior journalist Don Wiseman these are not the only issues facing Lulutai.
