Aircraft Loading Team

The eight person team, made up of six Air Force and two Army personnel, spent over a week based in Honiara planning and loading aid supply pallets onto aircraft flying to the areas worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami of April 2.

AK-07-0183-27-tn.jpg: L-R: FGOFF Karen Wemyss, GSH Ken Rhodes and CPL Adam Oakenfull push a pallet into the Herc.

The team arrived home to Base Auckland at 6pm on an RNZAF C-130 Hercules which had delivered NZAID and other emergency supplies to Munda, 30km South of Gizo, on Sunday 15 April. The C-130 transferred mosquito nets, tarpaulins, ground sheets and cotton blankets to the estimated 5000 people who had lost their homes.

The 15 April aid flight was the third RNZAF Hercules sent by the New Zealand Defence Force to deliver emergency supplies to the Solomon Islands since the disaster.

AK-07-0184-24-tn.jpg: The use of a forklift made unloading the supplies easier and quicker.

A contingent of 43 New Zealand regular and territorial force soldiers remain in the Solomon Islands in support of the Regional Assistance Mission.

Defence Minister Phil Goff praised the role of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), High Commission, NZAID and New Zealand NGO workers who contributed to the emergency relief effort in the Solomons.

AK-07-0183-54-tn.jpg: CPL Tony Perriton directs the forklift.

Mr Goff took the opportunity to accompany an Air Force C-130 Hercules flight delivering aid and NZDF personnel on a 24-hour visit to the Solomons on Easter Sunday and Monday.
‘New Zealand made an impressive and timely response to the relief effort following the earthquake and tsunami,’ Mr Goff said.

The second RNZAF flight also carried a forklift along with the NZDF loading team. This ensured the fast and effective movement of relief and reconstruction supplies from Honiara to the outlying districts affected by the disaster.

AK-07-0183-11-tn.jpg:Aerial view of a township on Ghizo Island showing the destruction caused by the tsunami.