PARAPARAUMU AIRPORT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 6

PARAPARAUMU AIRPORT

LITTLE USE POSSIBLE YESTERDAY

FOOT OF WATER ON ONE RUNWAY From Our Own Reporter WELLINGTON, October 29. The Paraparaumu airport was unworkable again to-day because-of bad weather after two aircraft left early in the morning until 4 o’clock this afternoon. There was a foot of water on one runway. The National Airways Corporation expects that all aircraft will be able to iise Paraparaumu . to-morrow.

The last passenger aircraft from Auckland landed at Paraparaumu today ’ and two aircraft leit the aerodrome for Blenheim and one for Nelson late this afternoon. The weather improved considerably this afternoon and the airfield, though still very wet, was judged to be useable. Aircraft landing and taking off at Paraparaumu to-day used one of the hard airstrips. The long runway which is being constructed at Paraparaumu by the Public Works Department is finished except for sealing and can be used when it is damp. An officer of the aerodromes section of the department said that aircraft had already operated from the new runway, but until it was sealed it would not be safe for either taking off or landing, when it was in a dry condition. The reason was that dust and small stones were liable to fly up from the surface and damage the aircrafts’, propellers. The sealing of the runway and the tarmac in front of the main building would be done as soon as the weather was fine.

Use of Milson and Ohakea All this morning and part of this afternoon air travel between the two islands and between Wellington and the north was disrupted by the unworkable state of the landing ground at Paraparaumu and the difficulty of transporting passengers three hours by road to the nearest alternative aerodromes, Milson (Palmerston North) and Ohakea. The position was made worse by the cancellation last night of the sailings of the Matangi for Nelson and of the ATahura from Nelson. These cancellations brought a demand upon the Airways Corporation from passengers in a hurry. to make tne crossing, but tfie corporation could not help them. Two aircraft got away from Paraparaumu early this morning, a Lodestar and a freighter for Christchurch. Pu }. so serious was the flooding of the neia that operations were closed down Tt had been hoped that conditions might improve sufficiently after 1 o clock to enable some passengers to leave from there, but there was still so much water on the field that it remained closed until 4 o’clock.