16 April 2007

SuccessfuL NZDF Aircraft Loading Team Returns From Solomons

The New Zealand Defence Force aircraft loading team which has worked to assist the Solomon Islands aid effort for the past week returned to New Zealand tonight.

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

The team arrived home to Whenuapai at 6pm on a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules which delivered NZAID and other emergency supplies to Munda, 30km South of Gizo, on Sunday.

Sunday's aid flight was the third RNZAF Hercules sent by the New Zealand Defence Force to deliver emergency supplies to Solomon Islands since the disaster.

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

ENDS

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