Revealed: Secret US airlift to Auckland

It left as it arrived — with no fanfare and carrying a secret cargo.

For just over 24 hours, Auckland hosted a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster which came bearing a secret cargo with sealed flight plans. It came from the east, early on Thursday, flying over Great Barrier Island and the Hauraki Gulf before landing at Auckland International Airport.

This morning it took off towards the east — then banked and headed across the Tasman.

It is not unusual for this particular aircraft to undertake vast, globetrotting flights. With a 5000 kilometre range and a cargo load of about 250,000kg, the C-17 is a USAF workhorse for moving freight, soldiers and weaponry around the world.

What it carried to New Zealand, though, is secret.

The US Embassy would not disclose where it was going or where it had come from, even though the information was able to be harvested from public sources.

In this case, it showed the aircraft at Cape Canaveral a few days ago, then flying to Honolulu and — with a likely Pacific stop-off en route.

The embassy spokeswoman said: “The C-17 is transporting equipment on behalf of the US Government . . . we do not routinely provide details of cargo being transported on US military aircraft.”

The spokeswoman said the US had co-ordinated approvals for the flight with our Government.

Security specialist Dr Paul Buchanan, of 36th Parallel Assessments, said: “It sounds like an equipment drop and lift.”

He said the landing at Auckland’s public international airport was telling and suggested a number of possible reasons.

Among those was speculation the flight was equipment for Rocket Lab, the Kiwi company launching satellites into space from Mahia Peninsula with a manufacturing base in Auckland.

It has delivered satellites to orbit for the US Air Force and Nasa.

Buchanan said it was also possible the aircraft was collecting specialforces soldiers from the NZ Special Air Service, based just 20 minutes’ drive from Auckland airport at Papakura. He said it was possible they could have been collected for transport to Australia for training.

The New Zealand Defence Force offered no answers.