Pacific Islands

First foreign planes arrive in Tonga

January 21, 2022 4:10 am

The first foreign aid planes have arrived in Tonga, bearing much-needed supplies for the Pacific nation which was left devastated by a volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami on Saturday.

New Zealand says its military plane landed at Tonga’s main airport after workers cleared ash from the runway.

Australia also confirmed the first of its relief planes had arrived. Aid efforts had initially been hampered by ash from the volcano.

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At least three people have died, communications have been crippled, and Tonga has only just begun to re-establish global contact after five days cut off from the rest of the world.

Yesterday, New Zealand’s Defence Force confirmed its C-130 Hercules plane touched down in Tonga loaded with water containers, temporary shelter kits, electricity generators, hygiene, and family kits and communications equipment.

Hours afterward, Australian defence minister Peter Dutton tweeted the first plane despatched by the Australia Defence Forces had landed, carrying “humanitarian assistance and disaster relief supplies.”

Rescue teams and hundreds of volunteers had for days desperately worked to clear the thick layer of ash at the airport runway in the capital Nuku’alofa that had prevented planes from landing.

Volunteers used wheelbarrows and shovels, in what New Zealand’s commander of joint forces Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour called a “mammoth effort”.