The King has officially launched a “workhorse” of the skies for a leading humanitarian airline.
Charles reminisced about his flying days when he chatted to Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilots who will use the Cessna aircraft to ferry everything from critically ill patients to coffee bean harvests across Papua New Guinea.
The head of state, who learnt to fly with the RAF, spoke to Joseph Tua, an MAF pilot from Papua New Guinea, where in the country’s Pidgin, Charles was known as “Nambawan pikinini bilong Misis Kwin”, the first child of Mrs Queen, but is now simply “Di King”.
Mr Tua told Charles about the Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft he will be flying before the unveiling and said after chatting to the King: “This new aircraft will help us do a lot more.”
With roads only covering about 25% of Papua New Guinea, the pilot said they are tasked with: “Carrying everything, patients, tons of coffee, sweet potatoes, peanuts, oranges that leave the plane smelling of citrus.”
MAF is celebrating its 80th anniversary and was co-founded by former Second World War RAF squadron leader Jack Hemmings who died in January aged 103.
His son, Adrian Hemmings, 73, met the King and spoke afterwards about his father: “When the war finished aviation had been used for destruction and bombing and a variety of other things and he really wanted to do something positive with it.
“So when he came across the MAF, you know, this was his dream come true.
“He was very partial to an adventure so the idea of taking a tiny, little two-seater airplane and flying all the way over to central Africa was wonderful.”
Today the organisation has more than 100 aircraft and provide humanitarian aid and longer-term support in countries across the globe.
Charles unveiled the new aircraft by pushing a button that raised hangar shutters at the event staged at RAF Northolt in West London and beside it was a De Havilland Dragon Rapide, a plane the MAF would have used in the 1950s.
During the event the King also congratulated a number of Papua New Guinea guests on the 50th anniversary of its independence from Australia.
