Air Cargo Lifts Pakistan
An indication of what a great
business the air cargo industry is today, filled with extraordinary people,
can be seen in the several stories we have featured lately of air cargo
relief flights to various stricken parts of the world .
Elsewhere special shipment stories are as
old as air cargo reportage.
We have been thinking about extraordinary
shipment stories because this week our mailbox has been filled up with
seasonal "puff stories" from UPS and DHL, as both integrators are moving
Beaujolais wine from France to destinations worldwide for the coming holidays.
But air cargo is doing some serious life
saving work in parts of the world right now, so with a toast to the wine
shipments, here are a couple of profiles in courage that celebrate all
of us.
Right now in Pakistan and throughout a region
where winter is fast approaching, people are in terrible ongoing danger
from devastating earthquakes.
Air cargo has taken on a critical leading
role moving relief supplies to people who are really on the edge.
The 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, India
and Afghanistan on Oct. 8, 2005, at 8:50 a.m. local time.
Epicenter of the earthquake was located
near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and
approximately 60 miles northeast of Islamabad.
In London Air Charter Service (ACS) answered
an urgent call from the UN to source helicopters for the relief effort.
The company with offices in New York, London
and Moscow offers air cargo charters alright, but ACS also has gained
a reputation for inventive hands on services, specializing in urgent,
oversized and humanitarian flights.
Air Charter’s Paul Bennett who serves
as senior charter analyst answered the UN call by securing two MI-8-MTV
helicopters that were promptly ferried to Pakistan for the project.
 
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Two Air Charter Service staff, Mike Walsh,
pictured extreme right in photo above and Stuart Smith, were deployed
to Islamabad to manage operational procedures, after being issued with
90-day emergency visas to allow them to work and move freely through the
region.
Walsh and Smith set up accommodation and
logistics for the flight crews, attended briefings with UNHAS and UNJLC
and met with Pakistani Air Force officials to coordinate the helicopter
flight procedures.
They also facilitated in getting the aircraft
passed in the pre-flight inspections and were successful in getting them
airborne within 24hrs of arrival in Pakistan.
Since the operation began, the helicopters
have been in overdrive carrying relief personal and cargo as well as injured
refugees to hospitals from the affected areas.
Delivery of humanitarian assistance is complicated
by the mountainous area, cold weather and damaged or collapsed infrastructure.
“The task we face is far more complex
and operationally challenging than first thought.
“In many respects its worse than the
Tsunami.
“The terrain and sheer size is equivalent
to Norway being flattened.”
Air Serv International, a Warrenton, Virginia-based
nonprofit humanitarian organization that uses aircraft to fly relief workers
and supplies saying
“We fly where other air carriers cannot—or
will not—fly,” has dispatched two helipcopters that arrived
in Islamabad yesterday November 3.
Working with Medecines sans Frontieres (Doctors
Without Borders) Holland, Air Serv is using its AS-350 helicopters to
fly medical teams to relief camps and isolated villages, and is providing
medevac flights to victims in need of more intensive care. Helicopters
will also be used to sling-load medical supplies into the mountainous
regions.
UN initially thought that in Pakistan it would need to feed about one
million people for a year, but after reassessing the situation, a figure
of 2,4 million people is more likely.
“It is a race against time with the
winter approaching and there is only a small window of opportunity to
get supplies through.”
Contact: Air Charter Brokers. www.aircharter.co.uk.
www.airserv.org.
Send money to help: www.ifrc.org.
(Geoffrey Arend)
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