Advertisement 300,000 N95 masks leave Gillette Stadium for New York City aboard Patriots truck Masks were flown to U.S. aboard Patriots private plane Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Hundreds of thousands of protective N95 masks arrived in New York City Friday aboard a New England Patriots tractor-trailer. The truck departed Gillette Stadium Friday morning with a police escort, stopped to drop off 100,000 masks for Rhode Island, then continued south with 300,000 more. The masks were part of a shipment of over 1 million masks that were purchased from China and flown to Boston aboard one of the team's private planes. The 767 was on the ground in Shenzhen, China for just long enough to take on the cargo, then departed just after 3:30 a.m. Thursday and landed at Logan International Airport just before 6 p.m.Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and the Kraft family teamed up with Ambassador Huang Ping, Dr. Jason Li, Gene Hartigan and the state's COVID-19 Command Center to make the humanitarian mission possible.Video from Rhode Island showed the southbound tractor trailer flanked by police vehicles.Massachusetts State Police were still part of the convoy when it arrived in New York City."We agreed to buy them and give them to the people of the city of New York just to try to bring some hope and good will and let people know we're trying to bring everything together," Patriots owner Robert Kraft told CNN. "I'd been watching Governor (Andrew) Cuomo over the last few weeks and I just think he's done an outstanding job," Kraft said. "He's at the epicenter of this crisis, and he has a calming way about him. He brings confidence. And I have a personal tie to New York City; Columbia was good to me, and gave me a full scholarship as a kid. I love the city. I love the people there. I don't think what's going on is something any of us could imagine." The Patriots also said 100% of all donations to the Patriots Foundation will go toward the purchase of protective equipment for healthcare workers. Click here to make a donation.