Visits to haiti
Got back a couple of hours ago from PAP. Amazingly quick turnaround. B757F 1 hour and 40 min turn. PAP Center is run by the hatian controllers and are only accepting ppr aircraft into the airspace period... Slots for parking and landing have to be arranged early before departure since there are only a limited number of slots a day. I have heard airplanes holding sometimes as little as 1 turn to 3 hours holding. The tower control is run by the US Military along with ground control. The control tower was destroyed by the quake... The runway is in the same shape that it has always been. The ramp area which is normally pretty empty is crowded with everthing from saabs to c17's helos and everthing in bettween. When we arrived Mid Eastern Airlines A330, parked next to us, when he left it was replaced with a CargoItalia MD-11... To get an airplane offloaded coordination and side deals have to be made with the FMC driver, the US Airforce drives the forklifts... Much chaos on the ramp with vehicles all over the place and people walking back and forth. US army, French, venezuelen and many other countries militarys and the un everywhere to be seen. the grass area is used for the smaller airplanes like caravans. blackhawks and bell 412's flying all over even a r22 hangin out.
Sad story, a 10-11 year old boy came to us and with a tear in his eye said "my family has all died in the earthquake, I have nobody here, could you please take me with you back to the united states?"
Tommorow gonna go to sdq...