For one small town in Haiti, life-saving food, water, medical supplies and doctors have been arriving on single-engine turboprop Cessna Caravan business airplanes. They land on a narrow, semi-paved road, dodging trees, debris and stray dogs. “It’s pretty hairy,” said David Zipkin, co-owner of Connecticut-based Tradewind Aviation, which is donating both airplanes and pilots to the relief effort.
Cessna Caravans are often used in the U.S. by companies who need to move employees, executives or valuable cargo quickly to customers outside major cities. The Tradewind airplanes are part of 24 business airplanes flying regularly from Florida to Haiti, operating under a program called Corporate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies (CARE). The National Business Aviation Association assisted with the formation of the volunteer group several years ago.
The town receiving help is Leogane, just 25 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince and the nearest community to the center of the earthquake. “If Port-au-Prince lost 50 percent of its infrastructure, then Leogane lost 85 to 90 percent,” said Zipkin. “Fortunately, we can get in where the big military transports can’t.”
Tradewind Aviation operates two of the big single-engine turboprop airplanes from San Juan, Puerto Rico, hauling happy vacationers among Caribbean destinations. Shortly after the earthquake, though, Tradewind moved the airplanes to the Dominican Republic to help in relief efforts on the Haiti end of the island
These days, Tradewind’s Caravans are hauling much more than happy vacationers. “The people in Leogane are starving; some haven’t eaten in a week, so we’re trying to get food and medical help to them as quickly as possible,” Zipkin said.
The overwhelming starvation itself can create problems in getting supplies delivered; United Nations security forces are required for each landing, to hold starving people off the road/runway.
Fully loaded, each Cessna Caravan can carry more than 3,000 pounds of precious emergency supplies, doctors, or anything else. And they can land on fewer than 2,000 feet of almost any smooth surface, which make them literal lifesavers.
For Leogane, where thousands have already died and thousands more are desperate for medical help, food and water, U.S. businesses like Tradewind Aviation are delivering chances for tomorrow.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.