38 Special R.N.Z.A.F. Missions In Pacific This Year

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 17

38 Special R.N.Z.A.F. Missions In Pacific This Year

The No. 5 (Maritime) Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Faroe has flown its Sunderland flying-boats on 38 search and rescue and mercy missions this year from its base at Lauthala Bay. near Suva.

The special missions have all been in addition to their normal maritime reconnaissance role in the South Pacific area and the continual training to keep the squadron's crews up to a high standard in anti-submarine warfare techniques. Fourteen of the missions were for urgent medical cases. 13 for complicated maternity cases. 10 on searches for missing vessels two on urgently required medical supply drops and one on a survey of hurricane damage. On all searches for missing shipping more than one Sunderland took part so that the area of probability that the vessel could be in could be covered as quickly as possible.

Few requests for mercy missions had to be declined because of an unsuitable alighting area, as the Sunderland is rarely handicapped in this way. The R.N.Z.A.F. through the 20 years it has been operating flying boats from Fiji has landed at most places that are suitable for sea planes.

The longest flight was made on May 1 when a Sunderland flew 1500 miles north-east of Suva to Penrhyn Island with a cargo of urgently required medical supplies. Penrhyn is New Zealand's most northern island dependency and is situated just below the equator.

Another long flight was made on March 11 when a

Sunderland flew 1200 miles to Tarawa to rendezvous with a ship carrying a European in need of urgent medicel attention from the British Phosphate works on Ocean Island. At Tarawa, which .« in the Gilbert Ellice Grouo, the R.N.Z.A.F. has an advance base which is manned from time to time for maritime reconnaissance fl.ghts n the forward areas. The Tokelau Group, the New Zealand dependency some 900 miles from Fiji, saw Sunderlands on five mercy flights, two of which called for the aircraft going to Apia, the Western Samoa capital, to collect a surgeon who carried out emergency operations immediately he reached the patient. The Sunderland on these occasions waited for the operation to be completed; then flew the patient back to Samoa for admittance to hcspital. The three flights to the New Hebrides, two on searches for missing ships and one to collect a seriously ill British sailor from H M.S Cook, involved round flights of 1600 miles on each occasion.

The open sea landing made at Niue Island on November 14 to take off a New Zealand nursing sister was perhaps the most hazardous mercy flight carried out. It is only the fourth landing ever made at Niue, the three previous occasions also being mercy missions. Unlike most Pacific islands Niue has no protective reef with the result there is normally a heavy swell or sea. Only on rare occasions is the sea condition smooth enough for a Sunderland to touch down Other flights were mainly in groups far closer to the base at Lauthala Bay. But each was an emergency, when but for the actions of the squadron a life or lives could have been lost On all mercy missions a R.N.Z.A.F nursing sister accompanied the aircraft, sometimes with an Air Force doctor or medical staff from the Suva hospitals. At all times a Sunderland is ready at Lauthala Bay for search and rescue or mercy missions. A duty crew is on standby 24 hours a day. every day of the year. Within an hour of receiving the call for assistance the Sunderland can be on its way fully equipped for any eventuality. In the 20 years the Royal New Zealand Air Force has operated in the Pacific area with flying-boats it has built up a fine record of such missions That the islanders appreciate the presence c.f the Air Force is shown in the letters which the squadron receives after each flight. Although written only on scraps of paper and in bad English, the sincerity of the appreciation expressed by the writer can never be doubted.