Date:	Tuesday 1 March 1977
Time:
Type:	Cessna 402
Owner/operator:	Talair
Registration:	P2-GKC
MSN:	402-0144
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 9
Other fatalities:	5
Aircraft damage:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	Brugam, East Sepik -   Papua New Guinea
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi
Departure airport:	Wewak (AYWK)
Destination airport:	Nuku (AYNU)

Narrative:
The aircraft was on a charter flight from Wewak to Nuku, 132 km to the west, with 8 passengers on board. In overcast conditions and without the availability of navaids or GPS the pilot mis-identified the small mission airstrip Brugam, 92 km west of Wewak, as the expected destination. Several passengers reinforced the pilot's error by also mis-identifying the airstrip. On landing the airstrip was shorter than expected and braking action was seriously degraded. The aircraft overran and crashed into a school building, killing 2 adults and 3 children. The pilot, Robert Henry Maxwell Gibbes (60), and all passengers survived with minor injuries. The aircraft and building were destroyed by fire. There was another Talair pilot sharing the flying with Gibbes. He was Brian Walker.

World Directory of Airliner Crashes/Terry Denham,
PNG Post-Courier, 2 March 1977, page 1,
PNG Post-Courier, 4 March 1977, page 3,
PNG Post-Courier, 29 March 1977, page 15,
Canberra Times, 2 March 1977, page 3,
Balus, vol. III, page 54.

Brugam, PNG, 1977.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
12-Aug-2009 10:33	zerocinquanta	Updated
07-Jan-2011 04:26	TB	Updated [Cn, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative]
31-Mar-2015 10:34	Anon.	Updated [Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative]
12-Jun-2022 08:20	Turbulator	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Photo]