Business aviation has long served as a lifeline to people and communities in crisis. That’s because business aircraft can reach locations impacted by natural disasters, when airliners and sometimes even automobiles cannot. Business aircraft can operate on short notice into outlying airports with small runways, and sometimes unpaved airstrips, or even onto roads – they are uniquely suited to providing a first response to natural disasters and other emergencies. The NBAA Humanitarian Emergency Response Operator (HERO) Database is a list of people in the business aviation community who are part of disaster-response mobilization efforts. In the aftermath of major crises, basic information from the database is provided to organizations coordinating relief efforts.