Former Minister of Police Siaosi Sovaleni Hu‘akavameiliku and current Minister of Police Piveni Piukala clashed in Parliament this morning over an aircraft flight that occurred on Sunday.
The questions follow footage of the Lulutai aircraft leaving the Fua‘amotu domestic airport yesterday, Sunday, 30 which triggered debates on Facebook.
The Parliament of Tonga reconvened this morning.
Piukala confirmed in the House that the flight was emergency-related, heading to one of the Niuas to medevac a patient who was in emergency.
Piukala recently denied authorization for a foreign air ambulance to evacuate two patients from Tonga.
Following the flight’s cancellation, Piukala said that his investigation of the application allegedly revealed no tourists requiring medical evacuation, contrary to the original claim.
Hu‘akavameiliku’s questioning revived controversy surrounding his 2024 decision to authorize Lulutai Airlines flights on Christmas Day.
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Businesses and trading services are illegal in the kingdom on Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday.
As Kaniva News reported at the time, the national airline was accused of breaching the Christmas Day trading ban after reports that it conducted passenger flights on Christmas Day.
At the time, we said that Neiafu town officer had protested at the Vava’u police station after the police arrested his son for illegally swimming in the sea on that Christmas Day.
Lapota told Kaniva News that the Lulutai aircraft flew back and forth from Vava’u and questioned why they were allegedly allowed to conduct business on Christmas Day, at the same time the police arrested his son for swimming in the sea the same day.
We contacted Hu’akavameiliku at the time for comment.
During a press conference, at the time, where he was asked to address the legality of the government airline’s Christmas Day passenger flights, Hu’akavameiliku declined to provide a clear justification for the operations.
While confirming that a ‘provisional permit’ had been issued, he did not explain how passenger services qualified under Tongan law, which only permits Christmas flights for emergencies.
