From school children to Health Authority Board Members, the MAF floatplane ‘P2-WET’ is bringing renewed hope to remote lake communities and fast, reliable access to healthcare, education, commerce and food.
By Linsey Painter
“Thank you to MAF for this service,” Amos Kupaloma said before boarding his flight with two colleagues at Kiunga airport in Papua New Guinea.
“The board meeting was to take place earlier but due to airline cancellations, we were not able to make it. I am thankful to MAF for making it possible for this important meeting to take place.”
Mr Kupaloma is the Principal of the Rumginae School of Nursing and the Director of the Western Province Health Authority. He flew on the MAF floatplane to Daru island. The flight was chartered by the Western Province Health Authority.
The Western Province has a very large landmass with most of the population living in extremely remote places. Many health facilities are also located in remote communities.
“We are very excited to have this plane,” said Mr Kupaloma. “It is an intervention from God to have a plane such as this. It is bringing health services to people’s doorsteps.”
When arriving at Daru, P2-WET alighted on the water, clearly showing the amphibious aircraft’s capabilities.
It is an intervention from God to have a plane such as this.
Peter Selemaki, a local man from Miwa village in Lake Murray, speaks of the struggle the people in his community face.
“Transportation is only by aeroplane,” Mr Selemaki said. When water levels around his village rise, there is no way to quickly transport people or food to and from the village.
“Before the floatplane came, patients would die. We could not get patients to the nearest health centre in time and people with snake bites would not survive. I really appreciate you coming back to help us with transportation.”
“These communities have never had this kind of service before,” said Captain Chad Tilley after completing two weeks of flying in the Western Province at the beginning of the year. “They are really getting behind it and appreciating it.”
Usually, travelling from remote lake communities to the town, Kiunga, would take days. With the plane, it takes half an hour. Having an aeroplane in the area makes it possible for people to travel back and forth for different purposes.
“Over the two-week period we flew a lot of commercial goods such as fish,” said Captain Tilley.
“We also flew some school children to school and Western Province Heath Authority members to their board meeting in Daru.
“While we were in one particular area, we got a call from the MAF bookings team. They could see us on the satellite tracking. They had a medevac for us at the location where we were. We waited on the water for the patient to come. Within 24 minutes they were in Kiunga on their way to a hospital.”
The patient, a pregnant woman suffering difficulties in labour, was able to safely give birth in Kiunga hospital accompanied by her sister.
Later in the year, MAF will be able to open even more water landing sites for communities on the remote lakes and rivers around Western Province. This enables MAF to provide fast, reliable transportation and access to these communities for the first time.
