meeting the emergency Haiti: logistical nightmare but the aid got through
JAMES LEACH, who was the Air Charter Service man on the ground in Haiti during the recent earthquake, helping to coordinate 70 aircraft movements in the first few weeks after the disaster, says that it is easy to criticise aid operations with the benefit of hindsight. “We can pick things apart if we want to, but aid operations are generally getting much better.” For example, the recent Pakistan floods have been handled quite smoothly from a logistical point of view as the country has two good airports and the seaport is still in action. What made the Haiti situation
particularly difficult was the sheer size of the disaster, the need
tugs, they needed to get away under their own power – while the local handling agent had to divide his time between doing his job and defending his own home from looters. Some national governments,
for all manner of supplies and services ranging from water to search and rescue teams and the very limited facilities at both Port au Prince airport and over the border in the Dominican Republic at Santo Domingo. Leach recalled that large aircraft
had to be carefully parked at Port au Prince because, with no push
carrying 94 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including 50 power generators, three water tanks and 18 tonnes of children’s food.
ADAPTING QUICKLY Zimbabwe-based all-cargo airline Avient has been involved in many disaster relief operations throughout the world, including the Indonesian earthquake last year. The military ‘can do’ attitude of Avient founder James Smith came to the fore when it transpired that the nearest airport to the disaster zone was an obscure airfield called Padang – which had literally no freight handling facilities. Smith looked up Padang on Google Earth and soon an
Avient aircraft was on its way, with two additional crew members on board. Locals improvised their own handling ramps and the freighter carried ropes and nets to aid the unloading process. With Avient leading the way, other operators soon followed and put their own aircraft into Padang. Smith
under pressure from their own electorates to ‘do something’, are not above laying on high-profile charters, which then block limited airport facilities to other, more urgent cargo. Leach argues: “Really, it needs the UN or some other body to take control of the whole operation and to designate a hub. Then it should be up to the people on the ground dealing with the emergency to say what they need.”
concluded that while the big disasters capture the headlines, much of the aid that Avient moves comprises the unsung, routine shipments – in particular, supplies of medicines flown direct from manufacturers in Asia to locations throughout Africa. As soon as the seriousness of the situation in Pakistan
was known, UK-based broker Air Partner Freight arranged the despatch of an A300 freighter in early August, carrying 32 tonnes of emergency aid supplies to the flood-stricken country. Nigel Nicholas from the Air Partner UK Freight team organised the flight for an international relief agency. “We immediately searched for suitable aircraft availability from a carrier that has accreditation to operate into Italy,” he said. From its 20 offices around the world, Air Partner has
considerable expertise arranging repatriation and relief flights in times of disaster and it provided a series of humanitarian flights to Haiti in early 2010 following the country’s devastating earthquake. The emergency situation in Pakistan
will continue for a long time, experts have assessed. A statement from DHL said that its DRT unit in Pakistan would stay in place until the immediate crisis is passed – at least until emergency air flights are reduced to the level of two or three a day. Unfortunately, one fact seems almost certain: it will not be very long before the humanitarian relief supply chain provided by the air logistics industry will be required to quickly slip into top gear when disaster strikes another part of the world and urgent aid is required.
46 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
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