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Paul Brennan is standing in front of a decomposing plane that crashed 17 years ago in Brazil. Her eyes are watery, as she explains to the camera the relief of seeing this piece of New Zealand history for the first time. “Now we have to start getting it back,” he says with the kind of heaviness that he knows about the challenge ahead.
Brennan heads the Bring Our Birds Home fund, which is spearheading an effort to repatriate six historic New Zealand aircraft that are now scattered around the world. All of the aircraft initially flew for Kiwi airlines, before being sold offshore and are now in various states of disrepair.
Paul Brennan / Bring Our Birds Home
Former Air New Zealand DC-8 in Brazil last year.
One of the aircraft is the last remaining Air New Zealand 747, which is now stationed in Spain after being sold to a European operator in 2014. After Covid-19 delivered a huge success to the aviation sector, the 747 no longer necessary. and about to be sent to an aircraft junkyard. The trust is in a race against time to raise funds to get it back and potentially turn it into a hotel in Wānaka.
But in 2019, it was another of Air New Zealand’s old planes that got Brennan’s undivided attention. This story dates back to 1965, when a gleaming DC-8 was delivered to Tasman Empire Airways which would later become Air New Zealand. The jet plane changed the rules of the game, allowing Air New Zealand to travel to the United States and Asia.
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Bring our birds home / Supplied
The former Air New Zealand 747 in Spain now flies for WAMOS Air.
At the time it was considered a glamorous airliner, ushering in an exciting new era of travel, capable of carrying up to 129 passengers at speeds much faster than the turboprop aircraft it replaced.
The plane even carried the Queen and Princess Anne of Rarotonga to Christchurch to attend the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.
Since its sale of Air New Zealand in the 1980s, it has flown in the United States, Canada, and even registered in Colombia, before being seized by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Some argue that he was involved in drug trafficking, although official records are hard to come by.
Paul Brennan / Bring Our Birds Home
The DC-8 was involved in a hard landing when it flew for TCB in 2003.
Brennan explains that the plane last flew for a cargo airline in Brazil, known as TCB. In 2003, he took off from the Manaus airport in Brazil and encountered an engine failure. Filled with fuel and cargo, “they made a very fast circuit and landed very overweight… and that broke the main landing gear. And that’s why it’s sunk, ”Brennan explains.
The airline went bankrupt shortly after the accident, and it has taken more than a decade, but Brennan has finally agreed to a purchase price with the owner, which is around $ 20,000.
In August 2019, Brennan and his team flew to Brazil to see the plane and try to push the sale, which is still pending in the courts after the airline’s bankruptcy in 2003.
The plan is to bring the plane back to New Zealand, along with the other five historic planes, and display them at the National Museum of Transport and Toy in Wānaka.
Aside from the DC-8, there are five other aircraft that the trust wants to give back.
LAST 747 FROM AIR NZ
This plane is in Spain, with plans to send it to the junkyard early next year. Bring Our Birds Home hopes to secure your purchase before it loses its airworthiness, so you can fly to New Zealand.
ELECTRA TEAL L-188C
The plane is still operational as a fire bomber with Buffalo Airways in Canada.
MT COOK AIRLINES HAWKER SIDDELEY 748
This is the last remaining Hawker Siddeley 748 that flew for Mt Cook Airlines, and is currently in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The trust is in negotiation with Bismillah Airlines to bring it home.
James McCloskey / Bring Our Birds Home
The 737-200 now rests in the US.
NATIONAL CORPORATION OF AIRWAYS 737-200
The aircraft has been abandoned in North Carolina since 1991. A purchase price was agreed upon between the trust and the current owner.
Tim Bowrey / Bring Our Birds Home
A DC-10 in Cuba.
AIR NEW ZEALAND DC-10
The retired DC-10, which flew to London for Air New Zealand, is currently at Cuba’s José Martí International Airport, where it is used as a safety trainer. The trust is in negotiation to purchase it with the Cuban Civil Aviation Authority.
The trust has a small page to support its repatriation efforts and has raised more than $ 28,000.
