18 January 2010

With support from UPS, 9 MT of UNICEF emergency supplies will leave Charles de Gaulle Airport for Port au Prince on Tuesday, 19th January. This cargo will include collapsable water storage containers.

UNICEF has scheduled its largest airlift of emergency supplies for Haiti, to date, on Wednesday 20th January. The 90 MT of supplies will be carried on a 747 commercial cargo plane from Billund Airport, Denmark to Santo Domingo. These will include: tents, tarpaulins, nutrition kits, mid-upper arm circumference tape, weighing scales, health and medical kits (midwifery, diarrhoeal, inter-agency emergency health), essential emergency medicines, family water kits, Early Childhood Development kits, and recreation kits.
The same day, in partnership with Thomas Cook Airlines, 5.5 MT of water bladders used for water storage, will leave on donated cargo space from London Gatwick Airport to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. On Friday 22nd January,a British Airways 747 on the second Haiti relief mission will land in Billund Airport to take more UNICEF supplies to Santo Domingo. The composition of the cargo and weight will be confirmed.

16 January 2010
UNICEF emergency assistance left Billund, Denmark 16 January on a British Airways 747 destined for Santo Domingo. The special relief flight for Haiti was organised in just 24 hours, inspired by the long partnership between British Airways and UNICEF, and the urgent need to send help to children and families.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Captain Steve Hawkins, one of five pilots volunteering their time to take the flight to Santo Domingo.
The BA staff response to a call for volunteers with time and expertise was overwhelming. Captain Hawkins and his colleagues credited the cooperation of civil aviation authorities in granting necessary flying permissions very quickly and the close collaboration between BA and UNICEF in organising items originating from Copenhagen onto the aircraft.
In Heathrow 50 passenger seats had been removed from the plane to help make room for essential emergency supplies.
In Billund, 22 volunteer BA engineering crew, airport ground staff, and UNICEF worked quickly in sub-zero temperatures to load 40 MT of humanitarian aid. In addition to filling up the cargo area, every conceivable seating and carry-on space in the plane’s cabin was used. Boxes of health kits, and trunks containing Early Childhood Development materials were arranged and buckled up in passenger seats, and wherever there was room, padded securely with BA pillows and blankets. Kit components were also carefully stacked inside lavatories and galley coolers.
Peter Lightbody, BA’s Senior Flight Officer and 747 Technical Manager, explained that while his airline has only three 747 cargo planes, it has 57 jumbo jets - the world’s largest fleet of 747s. “This one had just completed routine maintenance and became available...it was a matter of moving and making decisions very quickly to respond to an urgent situation.”
“This was the first humanitarian mission by British Airways leaving Denmark,“ said Peter Rasmussen, BA’s Regional Commercial Manager for Northern Europe. “All went very smoothly, with great cooperation and team work from everyone involved. Everyone feels very good about what we are all doing together.”
Two UNICEF Supply specialists (Henrik Jensen and Christian Dehoux) were on board the 747 to assist in the affected region. Henrik said UNICEF’s priority once the plane landed in Santo Domingo would be to unload the plane and match up kit components that were now spread around the interior of the aircraft.
“It will be a challenge, but it will get done,” he reassured. .Conditions at the Santo Domingo airport and storage capacity are being closely monitored to ensure that supplies can be unloaded as quickly as humanly possible.
The jumbo jet will leave with the BA team for Barbados before heading back to London Heathrow.
UNICEF is working around the clock in coordination with humanitarian and government partners in a massive collaboration to ensure safe onward transportation to Port au Prince.With support from the World Food Programme another aircraft is scheduled to leave the United Arab Emirates this weekend with additional emergency supplies from the UNICEF hub in Dubai.

15 January
The second flight of UNICEF supplies from Panama via DHL charter has been replaced with the following:
With great support from UNICEF UK, UNICEF will ship 40 MT of humanitarian supplies in cargo space donated by British Airways. The Boeing 747 will make a special trip to Billund, Denmark (260 km from Copenhagen) on Saturday morning and will be loaded with UNICEF essential emergency supplies, including: tarpaulins, plastic sheets, 7 large tents (72 sq m), Early Childhood Development (ECD) kits, multivitamins, and a range of health and medical kits (e.g. surgical, obstetric, and inter-agency health, and diarrheal disease kits), The aircraft will also carry 10 MT of Oxfam water and sanitation supplies.
The plane will land in Santo Domingo where UNICEF will work with partners on the ground to identify the safest means for transportation by road or air to Haiti. Coordination efforts will be assisted by two UNICEF Supply specialists from Copenhagen who will travel with the BA flight. One will remain in Santo Domingo ant the other will proceed to Port-au-Prince. One of their first tasks will be to set up large storage capacity tents to house incoming supplies.
Plans are still underway this weekend to move 30 MT of emergency supplies from the UNICEF hub in Dubai to the affected region.