The Papua New Guinea Government’s controversial Falcon 900Ex aircraft landed at
The aircraft, fitted with an inbuilt conference facility, modern entertainment, and an interior tailor made to suit the avid modern traveler, touched down just before 11am after an eight-hour 20 minute flight at 41,000 feet across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu in Hawaii.
Built in France by Dassault Aviation, the aircraft in its “green state” was flown to Little Rock in Arkansas where it was prepared for Air Niugini at a cost of US$40 million, which included the interior, avionics, cabinet making, and entertainment and specified paint scheme amongst other things.
It also has cameras fitted on it to aid in bad weather
The aircraft has a five year warranty and during that time, any changes in the Falcon range will also be made to P2-ANW as it’s registered under.
It will be leased to the Government as well as private sector organisations and individuals for hire.
The aircraft is powered by three Honeywell TFE31-60 turbo fan engines and has the capacity of carrying 12 passengers in a standard configuration.
It is the finest in its class; with its classic tri-jet engines design, it can land at smaller airports and fly at high attitudes, even on hot days.
It is designed to fly 4,500 nautical miles non-stop.
We got more questions than answers on the source of financing this luxary for few well-to-do. Where did the money come from? Who met half of the costs? How will it be economically viable? Was it fully paid for? For how long will the PNG taxpayers meet the cost if it was bought on a loan? etc...The people of PNG need to know some of the answers to these questions.
ReplyDeleteamazing ! I am a bit skeptical.PNG has better thing to worry about. Hospital,education,creating jobs etc..$40 m would have been more useful for something else !
ReplyDeleteWe have many important visitors/dignitaries coming to PNG. It is important PNG should have such an aeroplane. We are in the 21st century. It is our pride. It is there to serve the government. It is an asset that is transparent. We should be more worried about money such as K100 Million for Oro restoration programme that went missing (Surprisingly nobody thought that it is important). What about other funds that went missing? Again it appears that it is not an issue?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the total value of funds that went missing compared to the transparent cost of the jet?