DC3 dealer back to do battle

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 1

DC3 dealer back to do battle

The five DC3 aircraft which have been sitting at Christchurch Airport for the last six months are about to become the subject of a writ for compensation of more than SIM against the Government.

Mr K. B. Neely, the British aircraft broker who bought the DC3s last November, arrived back in New Zealand yesterday, challenging the Government to be “responsible” and make good the financial loss which he says has resulted from the inquiry into the the possibility of the air-» craft being used in Rhodesia.

Mr Neely said that his company, Island Associates, had had a “really raw deal” from the Government, which could damage New

Zealand’s trading image in The five former R.N.Z.A.F; DC3s, sold by the Government Stores Board, were stopped from leaving Christchurch, in January, four days before the planned departure for Ghana. A Government inquiry has since confirmed that they were to be leased for a cargo service along the West African coast, as Mr Neely had originally guaranteed. The aircraft were cleared to leave New Zealand in February, but this had been impossible because of a shortage of fuel which developed about that time at stopping-off points along the way to Africa, Mr Neely said. The closing of an oil refinery at Abadan meant

that there were still no supplies of Avgas, the special aviation fuel needed for the DC3s, and there was no indication of when this would improve, he said. As well. Mr Neely said, Island Associates had lost on the work which the aircraft were to do in Africa.Another company also using DC3s, had moved in on the “market.” “What will happen to the aircraft now is the big question,” Mr Neely said. “They are still ready to go, but have nowhere to go.” Solicitors in Auckland, acting for the company, would spend several days putting “all the facts together.” before a writ was filed, Mr Neely said. He had collected evidence overseas,

including a statement by Shell International. to verify a shortage of Avgas. Mr Neely said that the claim would certainly exceed SIM. It would include insurances, maintenance costs at Christchurch, and a claim for the amount which the aircraft could have earned in Africa. Mr Neely put the earning value about $5OOO a day. There is also the matter of parking fees, owed to the Christchurch City Council, reported to be $5O a day for the five aircraft. “The writ will be issued, and we will see how responsible your Government is,” Mr Neely said. He was critical of the timing, and length, of the inquiry which was made into the eventual destination of the DC3s. “The

whole thing was blown up as a mystery, where there was no mystery,” he said. He said he did not know why the investigation had started, although he had some “shrewd ideas” that it had involved an anonymous telephone call to a member of Parliament. “I do not blame the public servants; we got caught up in some political crossfire,” he said. The Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Taiboys) has said that the inquiry started last December as a matter of normal policy. Mr Neely said that he did not disagree with New Zealand’s right to protect itself against Rhodesian sanction-breaking. He questioned why the inquiry had not been made before the sale was completed,

and why the company was not informed of it beforehand. “We acted completely in good faith,” he said. Everything had been done properly as far as the company was concerned, and it did not owe anyone in New Zealand anything, Mr Neely said. He ruled out the possibility of Island Associates’ now reselling the DC3 because it could not use them. The price paid for them was a “confidential matter,” he said. He also criticised a lack of communication with the company over the whole issue. Mr Neely said that he had heard of developments through the news media, and not directly from the Government. This criticism extended to the

Christchurch City Council, which, he said, had not. bothered to reply to a letter in February, inquiring about parking fees at the airport. Mr Neely suggested that the delay to the aircraft had been bad public relations for New Zealand in African countries where it had no diplomatic representation. Because the company had not been able to fulfil its contracts in West Africa, “a lot of people have been let down.” He could be seen as a form of “trade ambassador,” for New Zealand, Mr Neely said, yet his attitude to those he talked to now was “Don’t trade with New Zealand.”