Col. Buck Elton, who was given the mission to open up airfield and assist with airlifts, says they have controlled 600+ takeoffs and landings in an airstrip that normally sees three takeoffs and landings a day.Posted for my brother-in-law, who is an air traffic controller.
Because the air traffic control tower has collapsed, all of this is being done by radio, on the ground - in a place that only has one runway/taxiway for planes, set directly in the middle of the airport and thus making it difficult for other planes to take off and arrive.
Col. Buck talked about how they have to "stack the aircraft until we have space for someone else to come in. " The maximum number of aircraft that can fit on the ground: one wide-body, five narrow-body planes. and three smaller aircrafts that can taxi in on the ground, filling that spot as necessary.
Screencap from Google Maps.
I find it difficult to believe the logistics are so complicated that they can't find a way to let in some of the very most important relief planes. This is from a press release posted on the Doctors Without Borders Web site:
ReplyDelete"A Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cargo plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, was turned away THREE TIMES times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night despite repeated assurances of its ability to land there. This 12-ton cargo was part of the contents of an earlier plane carrying a total of 40 tons of supplies that was blocked from landing on Sunday morning. Since January 14, MSF has had FIVE PLANES diverted from the original destination of Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic. These planes carried a total of 85 tons of medical and relief supplies. [emphases added]
“'We have had five patients in Martissant health center die for lack of the medical supplies that this plane was carrying,' said Loris de Filippi, emergency coordinator for MSF’s Choscal Hospital in Cite Soleil...."
They're also out of morphine because these planes haven't been allowed to land.
This has been an ongoing complaint from Doctors Without Borders, so it isn't as if the folks running the airport are unaware of it. One is almost tempted to wonder whether the MSF planes aren't being allowed to land to punish the organization for speaking out about the problem. I don't want to think that's the case, but how could FIVE PLANES have been refused landing, one of them THREE SEPARATE TIMES? It just doesn't make sense to me.
So, let's suppose that they give priority to Doctors without Borders. Then people would die of dehydration or starvation and some other charitable group would be bitching about being denied landing their stuff at the airport. The airport is tiny and therefore operating in a very unsafe mode. Splattering 40 tons of supplies all over the runway and killing a flight crew would help no one.
ReplyDeletedon't want to think that's the case, but how could FIVE PLANES have been refused landing, one of them THREE SEPARATE TIMES? It just doesn't make sense to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat part of "there's no room on the ground" did you not grasp?
THANK you! I'm glad some one can has pointed this out. Holy Mike!
ReplyDelete@bigjohn, @Shay: Gee, I could have sworn I wrote:
ReplyDelete"I find it difficult to believe the logistics are so complicated that they can't find a way to let in some of the very most important relief planes."
@swift loris
ReplyDeleteHow is the MSF plane the most important plane? 5 deaths a day? Hmmm... that's not exactly critical in this context.
I think you'd need to provide more evidence for it being more important than say planes debarking rescue units, heavy machinery to assist with rescue operations, security forces for rescue and medical personnel on the ground. It's a limited airport, and emergency logistics are brutally hard. In fact most non-professional logistics personnel tend to horribly underestimate the amount of work involved in logistics work. It looks deceptively simple on the surface.
I posted a detailed response to rsm this morning, but somehow, quite mysteriously, it vanished.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if I'm allowed to post this: it's a link to an article I just read in today's Slate.com that says pretty much what I was saying:
http://www.slate.com/id/2242078/
I certainly didn't "vanish" it, and there's nothing from you in my email inbox (or trash) since the @bigjohn/@shay post.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the NPR host grilling the lady responsible for setting up tent cities...
ReplyDeleteLady explains, no one knew about the disaster for almost 3 days because power and communications were down. It took a few days to get the tents there. Now the government won't approve places to put the tents, since they will more than likely become essentially permanent.
NPR host(ess?) response... I just can't believe that after a week there aren't tents up.
*Slaps forehead*
Everyone that can do all these complicated tasks better, should go there and just DO it. :)