Air Fiji Flight 121

The Bandeirante took off from Nausori with 15 passengers and 2 crew. The aircraft was carrying nine Fijians, five Australians, one New Zealander, one Chinese, and one Japanese.^[2] 15 minutes after take off from Nausori International Airport, the aircraft slammed into the mountainside near Delailasakau, shortly after dawn.^[3] Radio contact was lost with the aircraft. At about 08:40, police received a call from the radio telephone operator from Windina to say that they heard a loud crash out in the hills, north of Nasevou village. Witnesses stated that they saw the aircraft flying low, and shortly after slammed into the mountainside. One man stated that he heard a "cannonball" during the crash. He then saw parts from the tail fall down.^[4]

A search team was dispatched by the authorities. Shortly after, a helicopter spotted the wreckage of Flight 121. There were no signs of life on the crash site.^[5] The crash site was in a remote area, about six hours' walk from the nearest village, with few roads and no telephone links. Rescuers were forced to evacuate the bodies by foot. Police operations director Jahir Khan said police would try to remove the bodies by 25 July. Lack of equipment hampered the evacuation process and several severely mutilated bodies trapped in the wreckage had to be recovered by cutting and removing the wreckage from the area.^[6]

The aircraft involved in the crash was an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (Serial Number 110416) registered in Fiji as DQ-AFN. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 turboprop engines, the aircraft was first flown in 1983 and had flown a total of 22411 cycles. The aircraft was registered in America and Australia prior to being operated by Air Fiji.^{[citation needed]}