Jean Batten's statue is being moved from Auckland Airport after 33 years greeting visitors. Photo / Supplied, Auckland International Airport
Jean Batten's statue is being moved from Auckland Airport after 33 years greeting visitors. Photo / Supplied, Auckland International Airport
Fittingly for New Zealand’s greatest aviator - Jean Batten has taken off from Auckland Airport one more time.
The pioneering female pilot and first person to fly solo from Britain to New Zealand, her statue has greeted passengers to Auckland International since 1989.
Batten touched down in Auckland on October5, 1936, after an eleven-day journey from an airfield in Kent, England.
But today that sculpture is being uplifted from the front of the terminal and put away for safekeeping.
The site of her plinth in front of international arrivals is currently a building site, amid construction for the new $300m Transport Hub. Now the aviator will have to move.
“She will be back,” said a spokesperson for Auckland International Airport, saying the building work was an “opportunity for the statue to be removed for cleaning”.
The Statue of Jean Batten is removed from Auckland Airport. Photo / Supplied
Tuesday also marks 40 years since Batten’s disappearance and mysterious death, on November 22, 1982.
The sculpture by Anthony Stones would return to the terminal at some point after the completion, but that is to be confirmed.
The new bus terminus and 2150 car park is scheduled to open by the end of 2023.
Batten may be gone but her original Percival Gull 6, in which she completed the journey, can still be seen suspended from terminal 6.
Batten goes missing
After her flight from Sydney to England the following year Batten did no more long-haul records. Instead, she retired out of public view. Described as reclusive, she had little contact with her family or publisher.
On November 8, 1982, Batten went missing for almost five years. It was only revealed in late 1987 that she had died, reportedly of a wound received from a dog.
Jean Batten waving to crowds after landing at Auckland. Photo / Getty Images
Batten’s final 1974 will asked for her ashes to be returned to Auckland on an Air New Zealand plane.
Instead she was buried in a paupers grave in Palma, Spain, where she remains today.
The Spanish gravesite has since become a shrine to aviation and there are no plans to repatriate her.
When asked, Batten’s family said they were reluctant to retrieve her from the shared grave.
“It would just be too intrusive,” Great-nephew Ron Batten told the Herald. “She should remain there.”
