Woman hops jet to dying father

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 9

Woman hops jet to dying father

PA Wellington The daughter of a dying Auckland man yesterday made a last-minute Tasman flight to be reunited with her father — thanks to the efforts of the Auckland radio talkback host, Leighton Smith. The young woman — identified only as Tracey — left London on a British Airways jet on Thursday to fly to Auckland but the plane was diverted to Sydney because of the 24hour Auckland Airport strike which began at noon yesterday. The young woman’s mother telephoned Mr Smith on Thursday to ask him for his help. Mr Smith asked Mr Peter Oebreceny — of the BNZ America’s Cup challenge

sponsor, Fay Richwaite — if he could approach the International Management Group’s Graham Hannan in Sydney to help. Mr Smith knew Mr Hannan had arranged a flight to fly from Sydney via Adelaide to . Auckland with , the ’ Australian America’s cup skipper, John Bertrand, aboard to get him to a special function in Wellington today. Mr Hannan agreed to give Tracey a lift. Mr Smith then linked up on air with Tracey and her mother, announcing' the good news. The Learjet arrived in Auckland about 8.30 p.m. yesterday with Tracey’s father unaware of the Tasman drama taking place to bring his daughter to his side.