PAPAMOA ROOFING CREW DOWNS TOOLS EVERY TIME A PLANE PASSES — CITES "SAFETY"
Tauranga Airport is 4km away. The crew has stopped work 38 times since Monday.
A roofing crew on a Papamoa Beach Road new-build has been pausing work every time a plane passes overhead, citing what the foreman called "aviation-related occupational hazards".
The site sits roughly 4km from Tauranga Airport. This reporter counted 38 pauses between 0830 and 1430 hours on Monday. Actual nailing of corrugate occurred for an estimated 41 minutes.
Foreman Jase Whittaker, 34, of Welcome Bay, defended the practice with a mince and cheese in one hand. "Mate, you don't fuck around with airspace. Bloke at the merchants reckons a downdraft off an ATR can flick a sheet of Coloursteel like a frisbee." Asked if this had ever happened, Whittaker said he'd "heard about one in Hamilton, possibly".
A neighbour across the road, Pauline Esposito, 71, has been keeping a notebook. "They stopped for a seagull yesterday. Then a hot air balloon, which I'll grant you is fair. Then a kite. The kite was being flown by a child on the beach."
A CAA spokesperson confirmed there is no rule requiring roofers to stop work during overhead flights. Off the record, the spokesperson added that the closest commercial aircraft would be "600 metres up and moving away from them, not at them". The good cunt sounded tired.
Work is scheduled to conclude Tuesday. Whittaker did not specify which one. A jet from Auckland is due overhead at 1547 hours.
Know someone this is about? Send it to them.
Spotted something like this in your area?
Send us a photo and a sentence. We'll write the article.
SUBMIT A YARN →Free. Anonymous if you want. Takes 60 seconds.
Reader Letters
Trev_Hornby
Whittaker sounds like a legend tbh. Safety first. Plus, you gotta love an excuse for a long smoko. Those planes are kids' frisbees in disguise.
Garry (Halswell)
Hey, back in my day, we had to dodge shifty magpies and the odd kiwi dive-bomber. We lived to laugh about it over a pint.
BarryBishopdale
Who even builds new houses in Papamoa anymore? You’ll be swimming to the dairy in a decade with the way the sea's creeping up.
couchgremlin
Frisbee Coloursteel. Sounds like a new sport.
Margaret_F
@couchgremlin Maybe it's an Olympic category if house prices keep climbing.
ropeable_dave
Mate, seriously? PLANES are causing roofing delays now? More like bloody smoko beer breaks masked as 'safety'. They're taking the piss.