'The Hobbit’ director donates jet to search for missing plane
Peter Jackson has lent his private jet to the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' director's $80m G650 is being used to search for the airliner, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, off the coast of Australia.
A spokesperson for the filmmaker told the New Zealand Herald newspaper: "A lot of civilian and military aircraft are involved in the search and it's kind of disappointing that because one is owned by a celebrity it becomes a matter of news when there are [over] 200 people missing.''
He also denied that Jackson, who is worth an estimated $400m, decided to loan his jet for attention, saying: "Peter would not seek publicity for something like this and would actively avoid it, in fact."
The 'Lord of the Rings' director purchased his jet in March 2013 for approximately $80m and it registered to his production company Wingnut, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
His spokesperson also confirmed the jet is available for charter via the service Execujet and is currently on charter in Perth, Australia.
It was recently reported that Jackson had sold two of his penthouses in New York City to Taylor Swift for $20m.
