Three Orion aircraft had one final fly past Ohakea Air Force Base as part of a farewell flight over the North Island yesterday.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) No. 5 Squadron’s P-3K2 fleet of six planes is being retired at the end of the month after nearly 60 years’ service.

To honour the squadron’s service, three planes left RNZAF Base Auckland at Whenuapai yesterday and flew over Waikato, Manawatū, Napier, Tauranga, the Coromandel coast, Great Barrier Island and Whangārei, with close formation fly-pasts over Ohakea, as well as Wellington and Auckland harbours.

The Orions are being replaced by four P8-A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, which will be based out of a newly constructed hangar at Ohakea.

The first of the new planes landed in Aotearoa last month.

RNZAF No. 5 Squadron commanding officer wing commander Glen Donaldson said it was a historic time to celebrate the long service of an amazing aircraft, but also an exciting time of transition into a new era of maritime patrol.

“This is a bittersweet moment for us, where we have to farewell a faithful old friend who has looked after not just our crews for nearly 60 years, but all of New Zealand and our friends and neighbours in the Pacific,” Donaldson said.

The first Orion arrived in the country in 1966 and since then the fleet has carried out surveillance and reconnaissance missions over every continent.

While New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, the South Pacific and Southern Ocean were its primary operating areas, the planes also served in missions from Antarctica to the Arctic, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and through Europe and North America.

The six Orions provided a range of services for government agencies and communities, including fisheries and customs surveillance, search and rescue, humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Missions included the search for flight MH370 in 2014, the search and rescue of several vessels caught in a huge storm during the Auckland to Suva yacht race on Queen’s Birthday 1994 and being the first aircraft to provide reconnaissance after the Hunga Tonga Hunga-Ha’api eruption in December 2021.

In total, the six craft flew just under 150,000 hours, with each plane having been flown for between 22,000 and 26,600 hours.

“That lifesaving sound of a P-3 overhead, heard by many, will be gone. But for all those people who have had any sort of interaction with the aircraft, she’ll always be in our hearts and memories,” Donaldson said.