George Morgan hands keys for the new Airvan to pilots Max Chapman (left) and Marcus Grey.

 Freshly painted in red, white and blue livery, the Airvan was piloted first to the MAF maintenance base in Mareeba, Queensland, by Max Chapman then on to Phnom Penh via Darwin, Dili, and Singapore by pilots John Wall and Marcus Grey.

Seats were removed on board to allow for the temporary installation of a 1000-litre fuel tank for mid-air re-fuelling on the long-haul ferry flight.

LAME, Peter Diprose, gets to the seat of the problem in the Gove airport Hangar, Arnhem Land.

 Hundreds of civilian aircraft across Australia and overseas including a number operated by MAF, were grounded briefly in March for a safety check following a directive issued by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

 The March 13 directive affected aircraft fitted with certain fuel injection plug gaskets that had the potential to fail. This may have allowed the plug to work loose, resulting in a lean-running engine and a substantial loss of power.

 The problem was identified in the United States, where one aircraft made a forced landing and was badly damaged. Luckily the pilot walked away from the accident.

 After a total of 18 reports of the problem, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive requiring the immediate grounding of all relevant US aircraft. Only rarely has the FAA issued such a wide-ranging directive.

 CASA immediately issued an equivalent airworthiness directive to apply to the same range of Australian aircraft fitted with the fuel injection units including GA8 Airvans.

 MAF operates 12 Airvans throughout Arnhem Land, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Cambodia and East Timor.

"I fear the worst is yet to come"

- MAF's Tom Teale-Sinclair on the plight of Oro Province flood victims

Teams from Mission Aviation Fellowship have been working around the clock with the Australian Defence Force and members of AusAid to help flood victims in Papua New Guinea's devastated Oro Province.

The flood claimed lives two weeks ago and wiped out vegetable gardens in two-thirds of the Province - gardens the people depend almost entirely on for food. Hundreds of houses and livestock have also been destroyed

MAF relief co-ordinator Tom Teale-Sinclair fears the worst is still to come for local people who face months of severe food shortages while seeds are obtained and crops replanted. Aid agencies will begin to scale down relief efforts from the end of this week.