January 15, 2010
American Airlines and American Eagle have volunteered to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti as the airline tries to locate all its employees in Port-au-Prince.
Over the last 48 hours, American Eagle has filled ATR-72s with food and supplies from San Juan, Puerto Rico and flown them into Port-au-Prince. Three missions left Wednesday and two took off Thursday delivering 50,000 pounds of supplies.
“We have three missions planned for tomorrow,” said Andrea Huguely, American Eagle spokeswoman on Thursday.
The missions planned for Friday are supposed to deliver another 30,000 pounds of supplies. Every American Eagle pilot flying into Haiti has volunteered.
More concerning for the airline is that it hasn’t located all its employees in Port-au-Prince, Huguely said.
American Airlines and American Eagle are also trying to ready the Haitian capital’s airport for commercial traffic again.
In Case You Missed It
“We flew in over a dozen employees today — engineers, facilities, telecom folks — all to survey the airport to see how to get it up and running,” Huguely said.
Because of damage to its infrastructure, Port-au-Prince’s airport is now closed to all commercial and charter aircraft only allowing in relief flights.
subscribers.