Air force responds to complaints over training exercise

Tauranga City Airport manager Ray Dumble said the complaints had been addressed. Photo/File

Late night air force training resulted in numerous complaints about a large aircraft flying over Tauranga City.

Tauranga Airport manager Ray Dumble said he had received numerous complaints regarding a large aircraft flying over the city late on Wednesday night.

Dumble said the noise complaints were related to New Zealand Air Force performing late night training.

"They should not have been doing it after 9.30pm at night," he said. "I have requested that it does not happen again."

The aircraft was a Hercules aircraft, Dumble said. "We don't usually get complaints, but we got heaps of complaints about this. It is not good enough but it has been addressed."

Acting Commanding Officer of No. 40 Squadron, Squadron Leader Blair Oldershaw said the training flights on Wednesday night were conducted to improve the night vision capability of Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules crews.

"These skills were most recently used following Tropical Cyclone Gita in Tonga, where aid flights were conducted in darkness into the damaged airfield at Fua'amotu International Airport," Oldershaw said.

"We acknowledge that the flights into Tauranga Airport after 9.30pm on Wednesday were not in accordance with the airport's recommendations and the squadron will be updating and amending procedures to ensure this won't happen again."