Night Flights over Mendi?
Anyone know what these flights could be for?
Flights fuel cult
Mysterious flights over Southern Highlands in the nights in recent weeks have added fuel to a cargo cult mindset that has developed over the liquefied natural gas project.
According to a leading Christian church in the province, many people in the Southern Highlands do not understand how the benefits from the LNG project will be delivered and there are stories going around that the “cargo” in the form of the benefits will drop from the sky.
The church say it does not help matters when aircraft are flying over Southern Highlands in the night, something that is regarded unusual because no flights had ever flown over the province in the dark before.
“Someone in authority needs to explain these flights. Two planes flew in the night on two separate occasions in the past.
“Last Saturday, nine planes flew over Mendi town between 6pm and 1am on Monday. This is highly unusual and this is fueling this cargo cult thing,” head bishop of the United Church in the Highlands, Reverend Wesif Porop said.
Bishop Porop said when the planes were flying over Mendi, the story was going around that the planes would drop the “benefits” from the LNG from the sky.
“This is no good. Somebody needs to explain these flights over Mendi in the night. We are doing a lot of work to educate our people and this unexplained events do not help.”
He said the planes were flying in a straight line over Mendi and this has aroused the curiosity of the people, who are talking about it.
Bishop Porop said last month, some planes flew over Southern Highlands on separate occasion, drawing the same reaction from the people.