FIATA said new membership applications are skyrocketing as the soon to be 91-year-young global organization readies its World Congress, set for Kuala Lumpur from October 4-7. More Info: secretariat@fiata2017.org, http://www.fiata2017.org/
     “FIATA is growing steadily and strongly and is the perfect expertise, knowledge, advocacy, and business platform for air freight companies,” FIATA Secretary General Marco Sorgetti told FlyingTypers.
     “Looking at January 2017, we welcomed 22 new members.
     “We wish all these new FIATA members—as well as the thousands of others who make up the large FIATA membership base—prosperity and much success in 2017 and all the years ahead as together we build a better transportation industry,” Mr. Sorgetti declared.

Africa & India Top List
 
     “Egypt and India have topped the January new member totals with 3 members each, but just consider that 22 new members come from 15 different countries!” Mr. Sorgetti concluded.
More Information.
Geoffrey

   On Monday February 13, Qatar Cargo launches two weekly B777F cargo flights between Doha, Qatar and Miami International Airport.
   The inaugural of the carrier’s cargo operation at Building 706 features a ribbon cutting and water cannon salute as the aircraft arrives from Quito.
   From Doha, the flights call into Luxembourg, the airline’s European cargo hub, then proceed to Sao Paulo, Brazii, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Quito, Ecuador.
   On the return trip from Quito, the freighter stops at MIA and onto Liege, Belgium, before continuing to Doha.

Why FIATA Matters

The DHL Disaster Response Team in Nepal in 2015

     As the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that ravaged Nepal approaches, authorities are taking steps to improve preparedness for future disasters at two key Nepali airports. DHL leads the international effort to build up disaster resilience in the Himalayan country.

The ‘Perfect’ Disaster

      A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal in April 2015, killing almost 9,000 people, injuring some 22,000, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. Multiple aftershocks—including a 7.3 quake on May 12—caused further damage in the weeks that followed.
      Your correspondent headed to KTM within days of the disaster to report on the humanitarian relief effort. It quickly became clear that the quakes had created the perfect logistics disaster due to Nepal’s mountainous terrain, stifling bureaucracy, and the closure of so many roads and mountain paths due to landslides.

Single Channel Woes

      Making matters worse, land-locked Nepal relies on shipping supplies arriving from ports in India—a journey that took 10-15 days in the weeks after the first shock. As a result, much of the initial emergency relief effort relied on the country’s main airport, Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM).

KTM Shortages

      Unfortunately, KTM was woefully unprepared to be the main gateway for an international relief operation. It had just nine parking stands and one runway and was also desperately short of equipment. The influx of emergency flights quickly damaged the sole runway, reducing the size of relief freighters that could be received and causing backlogs of loaded freighters to build up at major relief hub airports such as Delhi and Dubai.

DRT To The Rescue

      Your correspondent was reporting on the relief operation alongside DHL’s Disaster Response Team (DRT), headed by DHL Director for Humanitarian Affairs Chris Weeks. DRT teams draw on a network of more than 400 volunteers, all specially trained employees of Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), which also foots all the bills for their deployment in disasters.
      The Nepal DRT was assigned handling operations on a section of KTM’s apron. Organization and handling efficiency were quickly rescued from chaos despite the lack of suitable equipment.

DHL Shines Through

      For your correspondent, DRT’s efforts were an excellent illustration of the sort of valuable logistics support the world’s leading transport service providers can produce in emergency situations. Unfortunately, DHL was the lone representative of the logistics and air freight industry in Nepal.
      But not only did DHL aid the emergency operations for an extended period, last week the company sent Chris Weeks and his staff back to Nepal to lead meetings with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), airport authorities, representatives from the Home Ministry, the Nepal Army, and other humanitarian responders to assess and strengthen the post-disaster preparedness arrangements of Tribhuvan International Airport and Nepalgunj Airport.

Preparing For Future Quakes

      The four-day Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD) workshops were focused on ensuring the airports were prepared to quickly receive humanitarian teams and relief goods should another disaster strike. “Besides having the necessary infrastructure to smoothly deliver the lifesaving support to the affected communities, the team on site needs to be trained in the necessary protocols and know-how to handle the dramatic rise in air traffic and flow of goods and people following a natural disaster,” said DHL.
       “The 2015 earthquakes have shown that adequate level of infrastructure and effective logistical operations would not only save lives but help reduce economic loss.”

Airports Are Vital

      During the workshops, participants and trainers evaluated the current level of preparedness at the two airports, while DPDHL’s aviation experts and UNDP leaders helped equip participants with best-practice logistics management during natural disasters, devised customized disaster-response plans for both airports, and identified priorities for investment in national infrastructure that could further improve the resilience of emergency supply chains during a future disaster.
      “The 2015 quake truly demonstrated the crucial role airports play in Nepal’s national emergency response network,” said UNDP Resident Coordinator Valerie Julliand. “We just can't wait for another disaster to strike to have strong and effective contingency plans to manage the flow of emergency relief goods to the people in need. The GARD workshop is a key milestone in UNDP’s efforts to support the government in making Nepal a disaster-resilient country and the airports ready to implement immediate response actions in the event of a disaster.”

Valerie Retraces His Steps

      Back in Nepal once more, Weeks said a clear and flexible action plan could help airport operators minimize logistics bottlenecks and better manage sudden influxes of relief aid, bulky supplies like food, water and medical supplies, as well as NGO personnel entering the country. “Almost two years since we first went into Nepal in the earthquake’s aftermath, it’s especially heartening to see the government and airports considering preparedness as paramount, and incorporating it into action plans that could potentially save more lives in the future,” he added.
      Hopefully, the next time logistics expertise and resources are needed in an emergency situation, DHL will not be the lone industry representative.
SkyKing

     On the scene post-Nepal’s 2015 humanitarian disaster, our reporter Mike ‘Sky’ King was so exasperated with the ineffectiveness of the relief efforts that he started working with a brave teenager named Suman Khadka, who took it upon himself to help his devastated village. This became a charity called Suman’s Story – Direct Aid for Nepal, which has received global media coverage for its efforts.

Mike To The Rescue

      In 2015 the charity distributed hundreds of emergency food packages, tarpaulins, water filters, and 70 tons of rice. Six hundred chickens were also bought to set up a chicken farm.
      After the initial relief effort, Suman’s Story – Direct Aid for Nepal endeavored to further help Suman’s village of Palchok. Palchok is home to 586 families, many of which have received little assistance since the initial quake. After a needs assessment by medical professionals, a drop-in health clinic complete with a part-time nurse was established and is operating to this day.

You Can Help

      Mike would like to continue operating the health clinic for one more year. With some funds already set aside, Mike is seeking just USD $2,000 to operate the clinic for another 12 months and ensure the villagers receive all the basic healthcare they need while they rebuild their shattered village.
      To contribute, please go here.
      If a direct contribution is not possible, Mike is also desperate for airline tickets to help with oversight of the existing operation. Currently, international volunteers with suitable medical experience absorb all costs associated with flying to Nepal from the UK and Indonesia.
     Contact Mike directly about tickets here.
Geoffrey

     FlyingTypers continues its groundbreaking series covering the courageous and pioneering women of air cargo and aviation with a look back at pioneering aviatrix Bessie Coleman.

     In America, February celebrates Black History Month and March celebrates Women’s History Month, which beggars the question of where to place someone as historically significant as Bessie Coleman.
      One of 13 children, Bessie Coleman was born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, to George and Susan Coleman, both African American sharecroppers. The family was poor and could afford very little, and once the children were of age they were expected to contribute to the household income.
      But Bessie had high-flying hopes. She attended Langston University’s predecessor, the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University, but couldn’t finish due to a lack of funds. At 23 years old, she moved to Chicago to live with her brothers and work as a manicurist. Her fascination with aviation was sparked in Chicago, where her brothers enticed her with stories of French women flying planes in World War I.
      Of course, when Bessie tried to enroll herself in flight programs stateside, she was turned down. A woman aviator was difficult enough to stomach, but a black woman aviator? One can only imagine the mockery and derision she faced in 1920.
      As a manicurist, Bessie had contacts with many of the black elite of Chicago. She quickly befriended Robert S. Abbot, publisher and owner of the Chicago Defender and one of the first African American millionaires, who encouraged her to go to France to learn to fly. He, along with others, helped fund her exodus, and she quickly learned French in preparation.
      On November 20, 1920, Bessie Coleman left for France from New York City. She enrolled at Ecole d’Aviation des Freres in Le Crotoy, France, the only African American in her class. She learned how to fly in a rickety Nieuport Type 82 biplane and within seven months received her pilot’s license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. She briefly returned to New York City in September 1921 and was celebrated in the black press—the Air Service News called her “a full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race.”
      Bessie realized she wanted to make her living as a pilot, but in order to do so needed additional training as a “barnstormer,” or stunt pilot—commercial aviation was still a decade away from becoming a reality. She returned to Europe, studying acrobatic aviation in France and then the Netherlands, where she studied under pioneering aircraft manufacturer Anthony H.G. Fokker, otherwise known as “The Flying Dutchman.” She moved on to Germany, where she received additional training from one of the chief pilots of the Fokker Corporation.
      Her first air show took place on September 3, 1922, at the famous Curtiss Airfield in Garden City, Long Island. The event was sponsored by her old friend Robert S. Abbot and honored the all-black 369th American Expeditionary Force of World War I. She was billed as “the world’s greatest woman flyer.”
      Over the next five years “Queen Bess,” as she was called, performed aerial stunts across the United States. She always encouraged the African Americans attending her shows to learn how to fly, and refused to perform in venues that denied admission to African Americans. When she was offered a role in the feature-length film Shadow and Sunshine, she accepted in the hopes it would help her fund her dream of an African American aviation school. However, when she learned her very first scene in the film would depict her in bedraggled clothes, she refused the role. Doris Rich, author of Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator, wrote “she was never an opportunist about race. She had no intention of perpetuating the derogatory image most whites had of most blacks.”

      Eventually, Queen Bess made enough money to purchase her own plane: a rather old Curtiss JN-4. It was only a few days after she received the plane that it stalled at 300 feet and nose-dived, crashing into the ground. With broken ribs, a broken leg, and several lacerations, Bessie was relegated to a hospital bed for 3 months.
      Bessie returned to her home state of Texas in June of 1925. She performed on June 19th, the anniversary of the day African Americans in Texas were granted their freedom. After her show the spectators were boarded onto five passenger planes for a complimentary night flight over Houston—the Houston Reporter remarked that it was “the first time [the] colored public of the South ha[d] been given the opportunity to fly.”
      While flying was one of Bessie Coleman’s dreams, her greatest wish was to open an aviation school for African Americans. She told the Houston-Post Dispatch that she wanted to “make Uncle Tom’s Cabin into a hangar by establishing a flying school.” She later opened a beauty shop in Florida to try and raise funds, and gathered enough money to purchase an old Army surplus plane from World War I to continue her stunt flying.
      On April 30, 1926, Bessie and her mechanic William D. Wills boarded her new plane to rehearse for a May Day air show the following day. The pièce de résistance of her act was to be a daring parachute jump from 2,500 feet. Wills was piloting the plane when it fell into a tailspin and flipped upside down. Bessie was not wearing her seat belt and tragically fell out of the plane to her death. Wills tried but could not regain control of the plane and also lost his life.
      It took almost half a century, but in 1977 the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club was formed by a group of African American pilots from Chicago. Every April 30th they fly over Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago to airdrop flowers on her grave.
      Today, African Americans can take great pride in women like Mae Carol Jemison, the first black woman astronaut, and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which in 2012 flew with an all-woman African American crew. But we must not forget about the pioneering Queen Bess, whose lofty dreams and unwavering determination paved the way for everyone else who followed. As Lieutenant William J. Powell said, “Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”
Flossie Arend

Vol. 16 No. 14
Big Brown Keeps B747 In Business
Chuckles for February 8, 2017
One From The Heart
Parisi Moving Forward Since 1778
Letters to the Editor for February 8, 2017