Fighter jets’ potential comeback ‘a joke’
‘‘It's just beyond a joke.’’ Matt Moody
Matt Moody thought he got rid of fighter jet training exercises in Manawatu¯ 20 years ago.
The Palmerston North man’s unheeded complaints to authorities in 1997 whipped him into an impotent rage that ended with a night in jail after he threatened to shoot down one of the air force training jets screaming over his property.
His threat was hopelessly impractical, given he did not have a high-powered rifle. But, of course, the police weren’t to know that.
Moody’s gun licence was revoked, he was twice raided by the armed offenders squad and went to court on two occasions.
Now, 20 years later, Moody, 79, has expressed disbelief at the possibility of fighter jets returning to Ohakea Air Force Base, near Palmerston North.
A survey of noise complaints in 1997, by then Labour MP Jill White, showed out of 249 people surveyed, 168 residents – 67 per cent – believed the jets were a moderate or serious nuisance.
‘‘They were dynamite back then and I think it’ll get out of hand again,’’ Moody said. ‘‘It’s the noise. It’s deafening.
‘‘Why can’t they train over the sea or around the hills? It’s just beyond a joke.’’
While he lived near Palmerston North Airport, the commercial planes, even the bigger Boeings, never bothered him.
It was when air force Aermacchi jets began to use the airport that life became impossible, he said.
One day in 1997, after a particularly exasperating flyover, Moody called Ohakea and threatened to ‘‘shoot the bloody things out of the sky’’.
The armed offenders squad raided his home, confiscated his .22 rifle and a shotgun and Moody ended up in court defending himself on a charge of offensive/disturbing use of the telephone. He was fined $445. One morning, less than a year later, ‘‘the jets came in and really hammered me. So I really saw red.’’
He went straight to the Palmerston North City Council and demanded to see then airport manager Garry Goodman.
‘‘I was boiling and then this woman told me I had to make an appointment. I said ‘if I had to make an appointment there’d be a dead pilot’.’’
He was jailed that night – a real shock to the system. He hired a lawyer and pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening behaviour.