No Forks
However careful you can be as an importer or exporter, something can always happen in transit. Vero Marine insures many of the major exporters of product from New Zealand, and we often see carefully prepared export product damaged by simple human error.
This digital photo was taken at Auckland Airport cargo terminal in November 99, by Vero Marine claims staff. This air cargo container held export chilled meat, destined for Asia. It inadvertently missed the aircraft because of a mistake by airline ground staff. The cargo was re-discovered four hours after the aircraft had departed. The meat was hurriedly removed and put into the airline's chillers, pending a decision on whether it was still fit for export.
Chilled meat exported from New Zealand by air does not generally go under active refrigeration. Dry ice keeps the product cold. However, the effect of direct sunlight and radiated heat up from black airport tarmac soon takes its toll.
The photo shows that this particular air container had required a previous repair due to fork lift tyne damage. As insurers, our surveyors and claims team see a lot of fork lift damage where the cargo has been seriously damaged through the walls of the container by handling equipment.
This was obviously not a lucky air container in which to load cargo!!
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