Airman hailed as 'good bloke'

RESPECTED: Flight Sergeant Andrew Bruce Forster was killed instantly when marking the location of an unexploded shell.

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The Palmerston North airman who lost his life doing the job he loved was just hours away from returning to his family after a two-week stint in Waiouru.

The family of Flight Sergeant Andrew Forster, who died during a military exercise at the Central North Island base on Wednesday, spoke about the "good Kiwi bloke" yesterday.

"He enjoyed his job and enjoyed his children and loved being at home with his wife," brother-in-law Glen Langvad said during a media conference at Ohakea air base. "He would do anything for anyone. He was a great guy."

Flight Sergeant Forster's wife Karen, and children Candice, Mitchell, and Ashlee, are shocked and reeling from the loss, Mr Langvad said. "They knew he enjoyed his job being an armour-man, they knew the dangers of it ... but they are severely traumatised."

The 46-year-old died on Thursday when an old artillery shell exploded on the training area.

He had earlier marked the location of the shell with a stake, and was just two metres away when it exploded.

Flight Sergeant Forster had 27 years' experience in the military behind him. "That was what he was put on the Earth to do," Mr Langvad said. He recently completed a tour with the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team based in Bamiyan province, Afghanistan, and had served in the Middle East and Britain. He had been in the Explosives Ordinance Disposal squadron only 10 days before the tragedy.

Flight Sergeant Forster was a dedicated family man and "good Kiwi bloke", Mr Langvad said. "One Christmas when the children were very young he put flour in the form of Santa Clause's footsteps coming up to the Christmas tree."

He even went as far to make it look like reindeer had landed on the roof, he said.

On the day of his return, Flight Sergeant Forster planned to buy Top Gear tickets for his motorsport-mad boys.

Squadron Leader Carl Smith described the atmosphere of the airforce base as morbid. "It's really knocked the wind out of us. A lot of people are just coming to terms with the loss of Andy."

The military investigation into the explosion would continue, Squadron Leader Smith said.

A full military funeral will be held at Ohakea on Tuesday afternoon.

- © Fairfax NZ News