{"id":12683,"date":"2025-09-09T22:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/12683\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T22:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:47:11","slug":"michael-rockafella-identified-as-manslaughter-defendant-accused-of-fatal-auckland-airport-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/12683\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Rockafella identified as manslaughter defendant accused of fatal Auckland Airport crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">George Bolt Memorial Drive &#8211; the main road leading to the airport &#8211; was temporarily closed, resulting in a warning from police that travellers risked missing flights if they didn\u2019t make accommodations. <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"George Bolt Memorial Drive in Auckland airport where a 4am fatal crash occurred on 30 July 2025. Photo \/ Jason Dorday\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>George Bolt Memorial Drive in Auckland airport where a 4am fatal crash occurred on 30 July 2025. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">Kummar was described in Facebook tributes as a \u201ccharming and loving\u201d husband who was religious and \u201cnever turned back to say no\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">He had been headed to the airport that morning, intending to drop his wife off for a flight to Fiji, where she was to attend her aunt\u2019s funeral. <\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">A close family friend of the couple told the Herald last month that wife Jashoda Goundar was recovering from serious spinal injuries in Middlemore Hospital.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Arvind Kummar, 45, died in an accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive. Photo \/ Supplied\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Arvind Kummar, 45, died in an accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">Kummar would have headed into work after the early drop-off, the friend said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\">The truck driver had moved to New Zealand two years earlier on a work visa. He was described as the sole earner in the family, helping to take care of his parents, wife, sisters and nieces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/craig-kapitan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Craig Kapitan<\/a> is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VYEVUgvTMz\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Bolt Memorial Drive &#8211; the main road leading to the airport &#8211; was temporarily closed, resulting in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,74,2681,806,51,1135,3549,15036,11784,15037,82,15035,5494,10136,3556,3180,111,43,139,69,1118,15034,1439],"class_list":{"0":"post-12683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-airport","11":"tag-as","12":"tag-auckland","13":"tag-australian","14":"tag-crash","15":"tag-defendant","16":"tag-fatal","17":"tag-fleeing","18":"tag-identified","19":"tag-manslaughter","20":"tag-michael","21":"tag-named","22":"tag-national","23":"tag-near","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-newzealand","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-of","29":"tag-rockafella","30":"tag-scene"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}