DC3 owners tell of Govt-created ‘mess'

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 12

DC3 owners tell of Govt-created ‘mess '

Owners of the DC3 aircraft parked at Christchurch Airport had been "hounded by the international press in London to expose the inadequacies and messy dealings suffered at the hands of the New Zealand Government," according to a letter to the Christchurch City Council. The five DC3s, now the subject of a High Court action, have been parked at the airport for more than a year. They were detained by the Government when an investigation was started into their ultimate destination, rumoured then to be Rhodesia. More than $20,000 in parking fees is owed to the coun-

In a letter received by the council's public utilities committee on Tuesday, a spokesman for the aircrafts’ owner. Island Associates, said there were limits to what could be'said because of the court case. Island Associates had paid all the bills to January'2o, 1979, the original departure date from New Zealand, said Mr K. B. Neely. The company had also paid for maintenance of the aircraft. Mr Neely said councillors might consider how they would react if they had paid for council vehicles in Britain, then had had them detained at the airport by the British Government while parking fees and other charges grew. “No doubt your members would be indignant.” Mr Neely said, "and they cer-

Itainly would not pay these charges.” The City Council should look to the Government — “which has created this mess” — to pay the parking fees, he said. Partly because of the world shortage of Avgas, the aircraft had not been moved to another country. “Apart from forcing us to lose contracts, why should we now fly these aircraft as far as we might be able to get them, and then have to abandon them through lack of fuel?” Mr Neely said. That would be "passing on the mess, created in New Zealand by politicians and Government officials, to other countries which have had no part in what started off as a perfectly normal international business transaction,” Mr Neely said.