Patriots plane bringing supplies to Massachusetts
From CBS Boston
The New England Patriots plane is flying much-needed medical supplies in the coronavirus crisis to Boston Thursday.
A Patriots spokesperson told WBZ-TV the team’s Boeing 767 went to Shenzhen, China Wednesday to pick up 1.2 million N95 masks.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, Governor Charlie Baker struck an agreement two weeks ago to acquire the critically needed masks from a “collection of Chinese manufacturers,” but he had no way to get them back to Massachusetts.
So he turned to Patriots’ president Jonathan Kraft for help. Owner Robert Kraft also got involved and so did the U.S. State Department. Special arrangements had to be made to fly to China and to allow the plane to land. No one from the flight crew left the jet during the nearly three hour stop and loading process so they would not have to be quarantined in China for two weeks.
The original order was for 1.7 million masks, but only 1.2 million could fit on the plane, so the rest will be sent to Massachusetts early next week in another shipment.
In addition to helping work out all the logistics and red tape, the Kraft family paid $2 million, which came to half the cost of the masks.
Kraft and Baker also agreed to send 300,000 of the masks to New York to help with the coronavirus crisis there.
The flight is scheduled to land at Logan Airport Thursday afternoon.
No days off. Thanks to some serious teamwork, Massachusetts is set to receive over 1 million N95 masks for our front-line workers. Huge thanks to the Krafts and several dedicated partners for making this happen. pic.twitter.com/ieV6XMC5Ow
— Charlie Baker (@MAGovArchive) April 2, 2020
