PAUL BRENNAN/BRING OUR BIRDS HOME
From drug running to crash landing: a significant effort is underway to bring home Air New Zealand s former planes, which sit around the world in varying states of decay.
Paul Brennan is standing in front of a decaying aircraft that crash-landed 17 years ago in Brazil. His eyes are teary, as he explains to the camera the relief of seeing this piece of New Zealand history for the first time. “Now we have to set about recovering it,” he says with the kind of heaviness that knows of the challenge ahead. Brennan heads the Bring Our Birds Home trust, which is spearheading an effort to repatriate six historic New Zealand aircraft that are now scattered around the world. The aircraft all initially flew for Kiwi airlines, before being sold offshore and now sit in various state of decay.