NZDF aircraft arrives in Indonesia with aid supplies

Flight Lieutenant Dave Natapu (foreground), aircraft captain from the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s №40 Squadron, talks to an Australian Defence Force personnel after the RNZAF C-130 Hercules carrying 8.2 tonnes of aid supplies from New Zealand arrived in the port city of Balikpapan in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province around midnight Friday.

A C-130 Hercules aircraft deployed by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) arrived in Indonesia around midnight Friday with 8.2 tonnes of emergency supplies for survivors of last week’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Flight Lieutenant Dave Natapu, the aircraft captain, said the Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules was one of the first foreign aircraft carrying aid supplies to arrive in Indonesia.

“These aid supplies will help address the urgent need for clean water, power and shelter in the disaster zones,” Flight Lieutenant Natapu said.

Sergeant Daniel Swanson (left), Air Loadmaster, and Leading Aircraftman Liam Sole, aircraft maintainer, after the Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying 8.2 tonnes of aid supplies from New Zealand arrived in the Indonesian port city of Balikpapan around midnight Friday.

Major General Tim Gall, the Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, said the Hercules and a 14-member detachment would stay and help transport aid supplies and emergency responders to the quake-damaged city of Palu on Sulawesi island and other affected areas starting today.

Multinational operations to fly aid supplies to disaster zones are being staged out of Balikpapan, a port city in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province which is about 380 kilometres west of Palu, Major General Gall said.

A C-130 Hercules aircraft deployed by the New Zealand Defence Force arrived in the Indonesian port city of Balikpapan around midnight Friday with 8.2 tonnes of emergency supplies for survivors of last week’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

“We will be working with Indonesian authorities and our international partners to provide an air bridge between Balikpapan and Palu and help bring aid supplies to where they are needed most.”

The earthquake and tsunami killed at least 1,400 people, injured about 2,500, displaced more than 80,000 people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Palu and surrounding areas.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, UNOCHA, estimates that about 190,000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Flight Lieutenant Dave Natapu (left), aircraft captain from the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s №40 Squadron, and his co-pilot, Flying Officer Max Longdill, en route to the port city of Balikpapan in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province on Friday.