Britain snaps up laid-off NZ pilots, says paper

3.00pm


LONDON - Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) has signed up 19 retrenched New Zealand pilots, with some of them to fly anti-hijacking patrols over London, Singapore's Straits Times newspaper has reported.

The paper said the pilots are part of the group that were retrenched after the Royal New Zealand Air Force's Nos 2, 14 and 75 squadrons were disbanded last December.

In May last year, the RAF announced that it planned to recruit New Zealand's top combat pilots and crew once the squadrons were disbanded.

The Straits Times said the RAF eagerly took on 19 of the pilots who went to Britain and made job inquiries at the Ministry of Defence in London.

Seven were trainees and the other 12 were fully qualified fighter pilots.

The RAF is desperately short of pilots because so many of them have accepted better-paying jobs with civilian airlines in the past three or four years.

It needs a total of 1,484 pilots but there is a shortfall of almost 150 - most of them in fast-jet categories.

Recently, aircraft of 5th Squadron based at RAF Coningsbury, Lincolnshire, had to be grounded because of a shortage of fliers, the Straits Times said.

The newspaper said one New Zealand pilot has been assigned to flying Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft and another has been appointed an instructor.

Two of the other pilots have been given Harrier GR7 and another three Jaguar ground attack aircraft.

The other five are flying F3 fighter jets as part of a force on 24-hour duty to shoot down any hijacked aircraft targeted by terrorists at London.

Britian is taking the threat of terrorism seriously, with British prime minister Tony Blair expected later today to warn the country to be extra vigilant about a possible terror attack in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

A spokesman for Blair said he would set out the threat from al Qaeda - blamed for last year's September 11 attacks in the United States - in an annual speech at the Guildhall in London.

But he would also caution against handing victory to militants by running scared or bringing the country grinding to a halt.

"Terrorists want to damage countries and economies such as ours -- either through actual attacks or fear of attacks," the spokesman told Reuters.

"They want to paralyse society and we recognise it is our goal to stop them by thwarting attacks through vigilance as a government, businesses and individuals and ensuring normal life continues."

Blair's speech, which will also range over foreign policy, comes days after a government mix-up led to a strong warning of a large-scale terrorism attack being issued -- then withdrawn -- within hours last week.

The incident, coupled with a spate of reports about renewed activity by the al-Qaeda network, has added to Briton's unease as tension mounts over Iraq and newspapers talk up the likelihood of an imminent mass deployment of troops.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said on Sunday that Britain was "in the front line" because of its strong support for US action against al-Qaeda, suspected of carrying out last year's September 11 attacks.

He also warned that no government could provide absolute protection from determined opponents.

"We cannot guarantee that we can protect everyone...all the time," Blunkett told BBC Television.

Blunkett's remarks, and Blair's planned speech, echo warnings from senior US officials about the continuing threat from al Qaeda.

France also moved to warn its citizens on Sunday, saying intelligence reports pointed to France as a favoured target of militant Islamic groups that remained active in Europe.

- HERALD STAFF, REUTERS

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/defence