The weapons, including Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships, piston engined light aircraft, military small arms and 600 crates of ammunition, were shipped in an Antonov An-124 Ruslan giant plane. The Antonov had been impounded in Thailand for a week after Papua New Guinea authorities refused to allow the aircraft to land. Australian diplomats and defence and intelligence chiefs had been involved in secret negotiations for days with Sandline and the governments of PNG and Thailand before agreeing to accept the weapons for storage in Australia. The Antonov was allowed to fly to Tindal RAAF base, near Katherine, until the government of PNG arranged for the materiel to be returned to Sandline. The two attack helicopters remained in storage at RAAF Base Tindal until 2016, when they were buried at the Shoal Bay Landfill site near Darwin due to their dilapidated condition and possible contamination, for example with asbestos, and the cost of shipping them anywhere.