Dover aircrew delivers cargo to Haiti

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Abigail Wise
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AFNS) --  Airmen from the 3rd Airlift Squadron here delivered servicemembers and nearly 90,000 pounds of disaster relief supplies Jan. 19 to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The cargo, loaded into a C-17 Globemaster III, consisted of two high-mobility multi-wheeled vehicles, a half-ton truck and four pallets of emergency supplies. Along with the cargo were 21 Soldiers deploying to Haiti. The plan was to drop off the cargo and pick up any refugees waiting to be evacuated to the U.S.

This was the first mission to Haiti for this C-17 crew.

"There was a lot of pre-planning for this flight due to the unfamiliar location and the low lighting," said Maj. Paul Theriot, a 3rd AS C-17 pilot and aircraft commander.

The pilots used notes given to them by pilots who had previously flown this unfamiliar territory. The procedures are being updated with every aircrew that flies in to Port-au-Prince. Major Theriot's crew took notes regarding anything not yet documented about the flight path.

"Along with this being an unfamiliar location, there were a lot of airplanes in the air, including civilian aircraft," Major Theriot said. "The air traffic controller originally said to expect an hour wait to land."

Airmen with the 612th Air Operation Center's Air Mobility Division have been the air traffic controllers for the Port-au-Prince airport, at the request of the Haitian government.

"Our biggest success story so far has been installing the Haiti Flight Operations Control Center at the 601st Air Operations Center at Tyndall AFB, Fla., to maximize the amount of aircraft able to land and deliver relief supplies every day. Now, instead of chaos and confusion, airlift is prioritized according to what the government of Haiti requests," said Colonel Dean Romero, the AMD chief.

The AMD is flexible as the Haitian priorities continue to change on the ground. Sometimes certain cargo or support is required as quickly as possible. According to the air mobility commander, no plane has been refused since standing up the AOC.

"We are loading and unloading on average 150 planes a day, moving approximately 1,000,000 pounds of cargo a day," said Maj. Mathew Jones, a C-5 Galaxy pilot based out of Travis AFB, Calif., working in the Joint Operation Center for Operation Unified Response at the Port-au-Prince airport.

The holding area where all the cargo is transported to and from can hold up to 276 pallets, and people are constantly working to keep the cargo going to where it's needed, said Major Jones.

(Tech. Sgt. Eric Petosky contributted to this story)