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Air Force Boeing 757 Emergency Landing Raises Questions
Ron Mark MP
Spokesperson for Defence
16 AUGUST 2016
Air Force Boeing 757 Emergency Landing Raises Questions
New Zealand First questions the cost of keeping military aircraft as the Prime Minister’s jet.
“One of the Boeing 757’s that regularly flies the PM was forced to make an emergency landing. These 23-year-old Boeing 757’s are maintenance heavy,” says Ron Mark, New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Defence spokesperson.
“The Boeing 757’s flew only 571 average annual flight hours between January 2013 and September 2015, according to Official Information Act (OIA) information we received. That’s only about one-fifth of what a 757 flies in commercial service.
“The 2016 Defence White paper states the Boeing 757’s will be replaced but we ask why. We’d rather the money for replacements was spent on new aircraft to take over from the Hercules, that could fly to the Antarctic.
“Given we can charter commercial aircraft when required, we’d rather see military aircraft in RNZAF service, and not being mainly used to fly the Prime Minister around as the 757’s do. We have a perfectly decent state airline that can do that job.”
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1608/2015173_Air_NZ_B767_Request_for_Proposals.pdf
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