Air charter broker Chapman
Freeborn also assisted in early
efforts to get rescue teams and
emergency aid supplies to
Southeast Asia and the South
Pacific. The U.K.-based company’s Singapore office oversaw
the movement of hundreds of
tons of relief cargo to Sumatra,
the Philippines and Samoa on
behalf of international aid agencies with DC10, IL-76, B777F,
B747F and Hercules aircraft.
Chapman Freeborn also
provided charters arranged
on behalf of Middle Eastern
and European-based search
and rescue organizations to
Padang using two Fokker 100s
and a B757-200 aircraft. Other
support came from its Paragon
Global Flight Support subsidiary, which helped secure flight
permits and fuel provisions at
various airports.
The company also oversaw charters
responding to a tsunami that struck Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific. An
earthquake of 8. 3 magnitude generated
a tsunami wave that struck American
Samoa, Western Samoa and the small
northern island of Niuatoputapu in
Tonga. The waves destroyed homes
and all public infrastructure including sea walls, hospitals, schools,
roads and some tourist resorts. In
Tonga, two of the three villages on
the island of Niuatoputapu were
completely destroyed. Chapman
Freeborn transported humanitarian
cargo on Hercules aircraft to Faleolo
Airport in Samoa in support of aid
missions there.
Maximus Air Cargo operated one
of the first relief flights into Padang.
The heavylift cargo provider based
in Abu Dhabi dispatched an Ilyushin
IL-76TD aircraft with 25 tons of
relief aid. The aircraft also carried a
UAE urban search and rescue team
of six people, two four wheel drive
relief vehicles and trained search
and rescue dogs, as well as about 18
Source: World Food Programme.
tons of urgent relief support, according
to company officials.
Maximus President and CEO Fathi
H. Buhazza said one challenge was the
“very short lead time to mobilize crew,
aircraft and permits, which in this case
was only 12 hours.”
He also noted that it was Maximus’
first flight into this location, “which
was crowded with traffic and
to some extent hampered by
the disaster itself.” However,
Buhazza reported that the crew
was received by a “supportive
and coordinated organization
and aid was efficiently mobilized
on-site.”
The first DHL disaster relief
team to arrive in Indonesia
included 10 trained volunteers
drawn from the DRT Asia Pacific in Singapore and the DRT
Middle East in Dubai. The volunteers planned to work closely
with UNOCHA, the United Nations Disaster Assessment and
Coordination (UNDAC) team
and national authorities to coordinate relief logistics activities.
The team handled unsolicited relief goods such as tents,
tarpaulins, food, clothing, medi-
cines and water purifying equip-
ment. The team also was set to
manage a temporary warehouse
at the airport; including sorting and
making an inventory of donated goods.
Hemy said a goal of the DHL team
was to ensure the speedy loading of aid
onto trucks or helicopters. The com-
pany’s effort was expected to last for
three weeks, with the team changing on
a weekly basis. “After three weeks, the
surge dwindles down,” Hemy said.
By that time, he said, the initial
wave of international charter aircraft
delivering aid supplies is typically at
a level local authorities can manage.
Larger amounts of freight then start
to come through the ports, Hemy
added.
Each DHL volunteer would
commit for 10 days whereby they
would rotate with another team. A
planned two-day overlap gets the
fresh volunteers familiar with opera-
tion. “We want to make sure there is
continuity so we’re able to maintain
the momentum and have a fairly
well-run organization,” Hemy said.
Another DHL team was deployed
to Ninoy Aquino International
Airport in the Philippines to handle
incoming relief goods there. A tricky
