Goroka Airport in the Eastern Highlands province reopened this morning after being shut down for about a day following a PNG Air aircraft incident.

The National Airports Corporation says operations resumed at 9:30am after overnight inspection of cleanups and full safety checks in Eastern Highlands.

The problem started Monday 25 May around 10:16am when a PNG Air ATR 72-600 had a tire failure during take-off on Runway 17R.

By 10:59am the airport was closed after a NOTAM was issued, and emergency teams moved in to secure the aircraft and clear the runway.

All 32 passengers and crew were safely evacuated, and no injuries were reported.

NAC together with PNG Air engineers worked through the night to remove the aircraft and restore the runway to safe condition.

After final checks, the runway was cleared, and flights slowly resumed this morning.

Authorities say the quick response helped prevent a worse situation and safety procedures worked as they should.

Airport management thanked all teams involved for the fast coordination during the emergency

With operations now back to normal attention shifts to stabilizing flight schedules and monitoring runway systems moving forward.