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.
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.