More than two months after the Haiti earthquake, business aviation’s mercy flights continue but on a much smaller scale. In the first 60 days after the temblor, donated business aircraft made more than 700 flights into and around the region, transporting approximately 3,700 passengers and delivering 1.35 million pounds of supplies, according to the industry disaster response charity Corporate Aviation Responding in Emergencies (Care).
Robin Eissler, the organization’s vice president, said it is still running two or three flights a day, mainly performing evacuations of seriously injured patients and rotations of medical personnel. The airstrip at Jacmel, near the heavily hit area outside Port-au-Prince, was closed as a temporary international airport on March 14, requiring foreign aid flights once again to land first at either Port-Au-Prince or Cap Haitian. As a result, Care–which had amassed a vast stockpile of supplies in
Santiago in the Dominican Republic–has found it is now more efficient to deliver the materials to the devastated area by truck, reducing the number of aircraft needed.
