Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's private plane is searching for Malaysian jet

HAGEN HOPKINS/Getty Images

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's private plane is searching for Malaysian jet
(Image credit: HAGEN HOPKINS/Getty Images)

Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson has approved the use of his personal jet to help locate missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. His spokesperson confirmed that his Perth-based jet has been chartered by investigators to help coordinate communication among the investigators as the hunt continues.

Jackson owns a Gulfstream G650, an "ultra-high-speed, ultra-long-range business jet" according to its manufacturer. He isn't personally involved in the search efforts and spokesman Matt Dravitzki wouldn't say how much he's being paid by the Joint Agency Coordination Center. However, critics have lambasted the lease of the luxury plane, since it's expensive to operate and the military planes currently in use are "capable of their own communications."

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.