By Kim Choe
A New Zealand pilot is one of only four people who survived a plane crash in Papua New Guinea.
Twenty-eight others on board died when the plane came down in dense bush and stormy weather in the north of the country.
The New Zealander was co-piloting the plane when it crashed yesterday evening.
Residents from the town of Madang watched on as victims' bodies were recovered.
The two pilots, along with two other people, were the only survivors when the airlines PNG-8 crash-landed in a forest.
One man told a local journalist he escaped the burning wreck through a crack in the plane's main body.
Papua New Guinea is a mountainous country with dense tropical forests, and is well known to pilots as a high-risk area to fly in.
Accident investigators are yet to determine the cause of the crash, but say the weather at the time was bad.
There have been more than 20 crashes in Papua New Guinea since 2000.
Former Air New Zealand CEO Gary Toomey now heads Airlines PNG, which was also involved in a serious runway crash in 2009 that killed all 13 people onboard.
It has been reported the plane that crashed yesterday was operated by Ansett New Zealand until 2002.
The extent of the New Zealand pilot's injuries are not yet known, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it does not believe any other New Zealanders were on board the plane.
3 News