PORT MORESBY, 24 JUNE 2020 (POST COURIER) —The four-man Asian tycoon team arriving in Papua New Guinea on a London-based private jet early Monday morning defied the Immigration, Customs, Airport and Covid-19 protocols.
The team travelling under a privately-chartered London Air Service Limited flight comprising passengers Cao Yu, Chen Mailin, Hui NgokLun and Wong Da Hao Andy and its flight routing crew Amell, Susan Amaryllis, Brownie, Oliver Francis, Spencer, George Matthew on registration CGCHG arrived in Port Moresby without visas, customs clearance, landing permit and quarantine protocols.
Airport officials remained mum when approached by the Post-Courier because it was understood everyone who arrived had no visas and proper landing permit, but all protocols were wavered with visa exemptions given.
Controller David Manning said that the Chinese business tycoon and his associates’ arrival instruments into Papua New Guinea were done under very controlled protocols.
This is despite the team having no visas on arrival and detained at the Jackson International Airport for two hours until instruments from the National Control Centre, specifically Controller Manning, exempting them from all the protocols into the country, including the 14-day quarantine.
Under the new Pandemic Act 2020 recently passed – #7 which states that no person is permitted to board an aircraft bound for PNG unless – they have been tested for Covid19 within a 14-day period before boarding an aircraft and have returned a result indicating they do not have detectable levels of Covid-19.
But specific Pandemic Act 2020 – 9 overrides it, stating that with measures contained in paragraph 7 and 8 shall not apply to persons approved to enter Papua New Guinea on or before June 20, 2020, by the controller.
So the Post-Courier was told the Pandemic Act 2020 took precedence, and was in action on this trip, despite Immigration, Customs, National Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) and National Airport Corporation (NAC) officials who detained the plane at 5.40am on Monday because of visas issues, landing permit, Custom issues and Covid-19 protocols had not been adhered to, but were instructed that they were exempted because the government had wavered all of them.
No specific cargo declaration was also made including all other protocols, and the Post-Courier also contacted the London Air Services to confirm the cargo manifest including the flight manifest, but the paper was told they could only confirm allowing a business team under their executive private, customised travel worldwide with their state of the art luxury aircraft.
The PNG office in London could not be reached for comment. Immigration office, the Foreign Affairs, Customs, NAQIA and NAC were contacted but remained mum on the latter.
Meanwhile, Chinese business tycoon Chen Mailin, who has made headlines in PNG when he charted a private jet into Port Moresby gifted the PNG government with 50,000 three-ply standard surgical masks.
He also said he would donate 20 ventilators at a later date when the necessary paper work has been sorted out.
Masks similar to those donated yesterday cost around US$0.05-1.25 (17t-K4.30) per unit, according to Chinese factory supplier’s websites. All up would have totaled US$62,500. The 20 ventilators, according to Pandemic Act Controller David Manning costs a total of K1 million (US$289,000).
Mailin presented the masks at a press conference at the Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby in the presence of State Ministers Wera Mori and SoroiEoe.
The donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) are in conjunction with Mailin’s trip to PNG, however the extent of his business here in PNG is not fully understood.
Mailin is set to leave by the end of today, via the APEC VIP terminal where his charted plane is parked and he will fly back to Vancouver, Canada….PACNEWS