A jet owned by the New England Patriots swapped out its typical cargo of helmets and football players in favor of 1.2 million N95 masks.
The team’s jet made a trip to Shenzhen, China, to round up as many face masks as possible to bring back for medical professionals in the United States on Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. In addition to the face masks, the team also flew back full-length bodysuits worn by doctors to protect them from the coronavirus.
The flight crew was granted just three hours to sit on a runway in Shenzhen while being loaded with masks and other personal protective equipment needed as the pandemic creates shortages around the world. After the cargo was loaded onto the plane, the jet took off to return to its home in Boston.
While the trip itself is lengthy, the transfer was part of a weekslong negotiation between the team, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, private companies, the Chinese government, and the Shenzhen airport. Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he could not believe the difficulty of making the arrangements for the haul.
“I’ve never seen so much red tape in so many ways and obstacles that we had to overcome,” Kraft explained. “In today’s world, those of us who are fortunate to make a difference have a significant responsibility to do so with all the assets we have available to us.”
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The plan to fly the materials from China to Boston was dreamed up by Baker and Kraft’s son, Jonathan Kraft. The two, who are longtime friends, understood that the country needed to bring as many masks as possible back to the U.S. as the outbreak continues to roll across the country.
In a series of letters sent to the Chinese consul general from March 24 to March 30, the Krafts, Baker, and members of the U.S. State Department convinced the Chinese government to allow the plane to land in China and promised that no members of the flight crew would exit the aircraft to ensure that the virus was not spread to any additional Chinese citizens.
The Kraft family personally spent $2 million to pay for half of the supply of N95 masks that were picked up on the team’s jet. They partnered with the Chinese tech firm Tencent to round up the masks from various suppliers and arrange for crews to load the masks onto the plane. Tencent acquired 1.7 million masks, but only 1.2 million fit aboard the plane. The remaining half-million masks will also be sent to the U.S. in a second shipment.
Most of the masks will be used in Massachusetts, but Kraft and Baker agreed to send 300,000 masks to New York City, which is now the American epicenter of the pandemic.
