RAF plane finally arrived back in UK with coronavirus PPE kit from Turkey but ‘only brought HALF what was planned’

AN RAF plane sent to pick up an 84-tonne consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Turkey has arrived back in the UK - but only around half of the vital supplies may have been onboard.

The Atlas military transport plane left Istanbul and landed just after 3.30am this morning at RAF base Brize Norton, according to flight tracker RadarBox.

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Two other RAF planes have been on standby at the Oxfordshire base waiting to fly to Turkey to bring back the vital PPE.

The RAF aircraft that landed this morning can only carry around 40 tonnes of cargo, about half the total of  the Turkey consignment.

Care Minister Helen Whately told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme the plane had landed and the government was "going through the consignment and testing it and identifying what is there".

She could not confirm if roughly half the shipment from Turkey was still due to land in the UK.

But she told Sky News: "What we know with these deliveries is that they do not always have exactly what you expect.";

It isn't known if 400,000 badly needed surgical gowns were on board the plane, but three pallets were seen being unloaded after it landed.

IT COMES AS

• Britain's death toll soared to more than 17,300 after another 828 deaths in 24 hours
• The first doses of a UK vaccine will be given to volunteers on Thursday
• A report said patients have been turned away from London's NHS Nightingale due to a lack of nurses
• The death toll for NHS and care staff  from the virus rose to more than 100
• The Cabinet is split over how and when to end the UK lockdown

The Government had promised the shipment on Sunday, but it then emerged the order hadn't been secured before the announcement was made.

Health chiefs have repeatedly warned supplies of PPE are critically low and medics could be forced to work without them in hours.

The Government has been desperately trying to source the protective fear from around the globe as the Covid-19 crisis rages.

PPE SHAMBLES

But a Brit businessman revealed Turkey has begged him to urgently supply PPE gear.

The defence logistics boss who revealed the fiasco offered tens of millions of face masks, gloves, gowns and visors to the UK Government over a month ago.

It has emerged millions of pieces of PPE are being shipped from British warehouses to Germany, Spain and Italy.

Firms here say they have “no choice” but to flog lifesaving gear to supply hospitals in the EU because offers to help the NHS were repeatedly ignored by the UK Government.

The businessman, who does not want to be named but whose company is known worldwide, told The Sun: “It’s absolutely staggering.

"We’ve got contacts all over the world and we’ve spent more than four weeks trying to offer tens of millions of items of PPE to the Government.

“Then, over the weekend, we get a call from Turkey saying they’re desperate, they need the kit.

“When I heard the Turks were on the phone while our RAF plane was sitting on the runway, I nearly fell off my chair.”

UK purchasing officials have spent four weeks looking at the boss’s offer after he made contact via a Government website.

He said: “The process itself is just a nightmare, just full of red tape with the same forms coming back to you.”

He added: “The problem is that the kit we can get will go.

“At the moment, if we get the go-ahead, we can source everything.

“But the US and other countries are coming in and buying up these production lines really quickly.”

The Sun can reveal ministers are paying foreign firms millions up-front for protective kit — with no guarantee it will arrive on time.

The Turkish supplier which left the RAF plane waiting in Istanbul has banked £300,000 after the Government paid a 30 per cent deposit when placing the 84-tonne order last week.

A Government source said: “Suppliers have got us over a barrel because every country in the world is trying to buy PPE.”

Local Government Minister Simon Clarke was today only able to say the Turkish consignment was now expected in full in the “next few days”.