I wonder if other Rotorheads share my frustration at seeing this disaster unfold from the point of view of a helicopter pilot and operator.
Within the first hour of the wave, as reports started coming in, I guess most helicopter pilots thought, "they need helicopters there, for rescue and re-supply." When the estimated death toll had reached 4,500 by about midday 26/12 (UTC+7) reports were coming in of villages and towns damaged. Most helicopter pilots probably thought, "they are going to need helicopters there, fast."
Now nine days later the helicopters are finding new villages and small towns that have had no outside help since the wave struck. Where were they in the first 24 to 48 hours?
Well one place was, grounded by the Indonesian military as Aceh is to them the Iraq of Sumatra. A no-go zone for foreigners, even rescue squads. Another place was sitting on the tarmac at Phuket waiting for tasking. Phuket did not have a large need for helicopters as a decent road structure still existed. India still runs the Andamans as a penal colony so prohibits entry. Burma still does not admit that it lost more that a couple of hundred fisherman and a postman. (When you look at a map you can see that they are woefully wrong...) Sri Lanka is not the easiest of places to get to in a hurry in a machine with a range of 400nm.
So for a variety of reasons the countries that needed the unique rescue and support abilites of a helicopter just did not have them in the air, in any useful numbers.
Some years ago I mulled over and did preliminary costings on an idea along the lines of what took off from South Africa in the last few days. A suitably sized cargo aircraft with a few helicopters and support staff on board which could get anywhere on the planet in 24 hours. Call it International Rescue if you are that old and remember the TV program... It does not have to carry much in the way of rescue aid, as that is usually available within 100nm of a disaster area anyway and can be ferried in. Fuel for four days ops is carried in the aircraft (say 10,000kgs.) All you need is a strip to take the fixed wing and you are up and running.
I realise politics stops this today. Some git in the local aviation department says that the machines are not locally registered and then a low life from Excise says you have to pay import duty on them, but these are things that the UN is good at sorting from the top, as long as you give them a year to get the protocol in place.
The UN is too slow to react practically to international disasters. Military units are also too slow. They need political clearance to start, can take ages to get on station and then try to take over the show like the American Navy is doing in Aceh. But commercial helicopter people know that we can be doing good within the first hour if we happen to be there, or in 24 hours if we are allowed to get there. An organisation based on philanthropy plus 5% should be able to keep a quick reaction team on standby and yet still be financially viable.
I know a commercial IL76 and three 407's is not going to save 150,000 lives. But it will save some, give relief to thousands and also demonstrate to a skeptical public that helicopters are Good Things, and good to have around when you need them, like insurance. And if I had been a villager in Aceh I would have been very pleased to see 500kg of water and some cup noodle put down in the market place by a helicopter with "Siemens" or "Nokia" on the bottom. When I got back my livelihood, I would probably buy one...
I have noted some others on the thread in the last few days with similar frustrations. How is it for you? Is an international disaster relief team based on helicopters totally unrealistic, or is there the germ of an idea? (Not mine originally I can assure you.)