Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Australian officials reached the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain range in Papua New Guinea, killing all 13 people on board, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

Military and consular personnel camped out in the jungle overnight after reaching the site on foot and will be joined later today by police officers winched down from Black Hawk helicopters, Rudd told Parliament. Three bodies were removed from the wreckage and remain at the site because helicopters are unable to land, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The operation to recover bodies and wreckage is being made “more difficult by the rugged terrain and changeable weather conditions,” Rudd said, adding villagers and police are clearing away trees to allow helicopters to land.

The Twin Otter Airlines PNG turboprop crashed at about 5,500 feet (1,680 meters) in the rugged Owen Stanley Range north of Port Moresby two days ago, with nine Australians, three Papua New Guineans and one Japanese citizen on board. They were members of a trekking party that aimed to visit a World War II battle site known as the Kokoda Trail.

Four officers from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau arrived late yesterday in Port Moresby to help with the investigation, spokesman Julian Walsh said by telephone.

“Obviously the PNG topography, terrain and weather conditions are challenging, but it is too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the crash,” Walsh said.

Fog and rain clouds often cloak the mountainside, making flying conditions treacherous.

Fighting along the 96-kilometer (60-mile) Kokoda Trail in 1942 was a central moment for Australians in the conflict. Soldiers turned back an advance by Japanese forces, preventing the capture of Port Moresby and a possible invasion of Australia 160 kilometers to the south.

Kokoda is visited by 5,000 Australian tourists each year, many paying tribute to relatives who fought and died there during the war.

Rudd said it was a “tragedy” that the trekking group was killed “on what has become a national pilgrimage” to Kokoda.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 13, 2009 02:04 EDT