Marcos flights’ cost put at $80,000

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 6

Marcos flights’ cost put at $80,000

NZPA-AP Washington The United States Air Force has spent more than SUSBO,OOO helping Ferdinand Marcos and his family and associates to flee from their homeland to Hawaii. That conservative estimate is based on the standard United States Government cost schedule for flying the four planes that were used to ferry Mr Marcos and his party first to Guam, on Wednesday, and then to Hawaii yesterday. Lieutenant - Commander Chris Bauman, A Pentagon spokesman, Lieuten-ant-Commander Chris Bauman, said the Defence Department had not had time to calculate the overall cost of helping Mr Marcos.

Precise figures for such

things as the cost of food and overnight lodging at Clark Air Base, in the Philippines, and at the Andersen Air Base, on Guam, were unavailable, as were the expense figures for flying the four helicopters that took Mr Marcos from his Presidential Palace, Commander Bauman said. The Air Force maintains a standard schedule of hourly operating costs for its transport aircraft. The schedules are frequently used in calculating the value of flights aboard military aircraft by Congressmen and other non-Pentagon officials.

Mr Marcos, his wife, family, and friends were initially flown from Clark to Guam aboard a C 9 jet and a Star Lifter transport.

They were flown yesterday from Guam to Hawaii aboard a Star Lifter with a second following with the entourage’s baggage and personal effects. According to the Air Force, the C 9, a military version of the DC9 airliner, costs 5U52263 an hour to run. The much larger Star Lifter costs SUS43O9 an hour to fly. Those costs are based on 1985 financial year schedules — the latest available. Using those figures the trip from the Philippines to Guam, which took slightly more than three hours, cost at least $U519,716. The much longer, seven-hour flight from Guam to Hawaii by the two Star Lifters cost at least $U560,326, producing a total of $U580,042.