Man recounts Air Force stoush
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Moody’s gun licence was revoked, he was twice raided by the armed offenders squad and went to court on two occasions.
But his efforts were not completely in vain.
Moody gathered 150 signatures to stop the jets flying over his suburb, Milson. Coincidentally or not, the flights did eventually stop.
Now, 20 years later, Moody, 79, has expressed disbelief at the possibility of fighter jets returning to Ohakea Air Force Base, near Palmerston North.
Singapore and New Zealand’s defence relationship dates back decades, with both joining the Five Power Defence Arrangement back in 1971. But the two sides have been making efforts to further boost collaboration.
This involves a proposal to turn the base into a permanent training arena for 200 Singaporean military staff.
The bill has been met with a mixed reaction from those living in nearby towns of Sanson and Bulls, with a group of residents raising concerns about the noise from a recent four-week flying exercise, involving six F16 fighter jets from Singapore.
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? They don’t have to come over the [towns]. 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 convicted and fined $445.
One morning, less than a year later, ‘‘the jets came in and really hammered me. So I really saw red.’’
He tied up his two dogs, hopped in the car and 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’.
‘‘I was really wild. I mean I was that wild I don’t know half what I said.’’
That night, in a deja vu moment, the armed offenders returned and took the slug gun his kids had used when they were young.
He was jailed that night – a real shock to the system. He hired a lawyer and pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening behaviour.
Judge Patrick Mahoney was reported as saying that he accepted Moody lost his cool and was unable or unwilling to carry out the threats. Moody was convicted and discharged.