Kraft family used Patriots team plane to shuttle protective masks from China to Boston

Kraft family used Patriots team plane to shuttle protective masks from China to Boston

Landing today: A Patriots plane full of 1 million N95 masks from China. Here's how the plan came together

In an extraordinary move, the Kraft family deployed the New England Patriots team plane to China to fetch more than one million desperately needed N95 respirator masks used by front-line health care workers to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Governor Charlie Baker said.

The plane is expected to land at Logan Airport Thursday afternoon, carrying the bulk of the 1.4 million N95 masks the Baker administration says it purchased from suppliers in China. 

The sports world may be at a standstill from the coronavirus outbreak, but the New England Patriots went on the offensive in their efforts to help combat the deadly virus.

In an extraordinary move, the Kraft family deployed the New England Patriots team plane to China to fetch more than one million desperately-needed N95 respirator masks used by front-line health care workers to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Governor Charlie Baker announced Thursday morning.

The plane is expected to land at Logan International Airport Thursday afternoon, carrying the bulk of the 1.4 million N95 masks the Baker administration says it purchased from suppliers in China. An exact time has not yet been disclosed. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal Thursday morning.

Baker credited Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft, who is president of both the Pats and the Kraft Group, as well as Chinese officials and members of his administration focused on developing and implementing the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a telephone interview with the Globe, Baker said the journey that led to the Patriots’ delivery started when the federal government impounded an order of 3 million masks that BJ’s Wholesale Club purchased and had landed in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The state had negotiated to buy them, until the federal government impounded them on March 18.

"I just started reaching out to anybody and everybody I knew, trying to find some other path,” Baker said.

The governor explained he was talking to people all over the world, and ultimately found someone who said they could help get the masks produced and navigate other complex on-the-ground hurdles. “The question then became: how do you actually make the pickup work,” Baker said, noting it would probably be impossible with traditional commercial air transport.

“Who did I know that had a plane?” he recalled thinking. And he called his longtime friend Jonathan Kraft.

"As I said before, ordering vital equipment like this is only one part of the challenge and I am incredibly grateful that the Krafts worked this issue relentlessly alongside our Command Center staff to get these critical supplies to Massachusetts,'' the governor said in an earlier statement. “We eagerly await the plane landing at Logan Airport soon.”

The Kraft family also agreed to pay $2 million toward some of the cost of purchasing the masks, Baker told the Globe.

Patriots running back James White praised the operation to get the masks for health professionals.

“That’s awesome. That’s huge at this point in time. You have doctors, nurses, all those people on the front line taking care of sick people each and every day. It’s kind of a crazy situation right now. I know people that have the affluence to help others, I think it’s important time to help as many people as possible – especially those who are sick," said White. "There’s some people getting laid off, they don’t know when a check is coming, or if a check is coming or when their next meal is coming. So, it’s a difficult time I know some of us are able to spend time with our family and things are OK, we’re able to get groceries. But there’s some people who aren’t able to get groceries and don’t know when that next meal is coming, so it’s kind of difficult for a lot of people.’’