Tsunami Disaster Relief - More photographs
Cool as a moosp
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Ned,
Thank you for putting these brilliant images out into the public forum. For all that the rest of the media have tried to show us the devastation, somehow your shots bring in the enormity and reality of the destruction. Perhaps the juxtaposition of our familiar machines with the remnants of a coastal society is a reason.
As we strive for the ultimate professionalism in our own industry, it is warming to see another in his own who aims for the same.
Thanks again.
Thank you for putting these brilliant images out into the public forum. For all that the rest of the media have tried to show us the devastation, somehow your shots bring in the enormity and reality of the destruction. Perhaps the juxtaposition of our familiar machines with the remnants of a coastal society is a reason.
As we strive for the ultimate professionalism in our own industry, it is warming to see another in his own who aims for the same.
Thanks again.
Damaged Air Serv Helicopter Evacuated to Aceh Air Force Base
Saturday, 09-April-2005, 14:31:45
Banda Aceh, Waspada - Air Serv International's helicopter Bell 212, which had to make emergency landing at Ladong village when latest big earthquake hit Sumatra (28/3), has been evacuated to Indonesian Air Force base at Blang Bintang, Aceh Besar. The badly damaged helicopter airlifted on Monday (3/4) using UN Mi 8 helicopter.
The Air Serv helicopter incident, as reported by Waspada on Tuesday, happened when Sumatra island hit by latest earthquake on 28 March. The chopper rented by the US NGO from local companies to conduct rescue mission. When the earthquake hit the island, at 23:55 the chopper left the airport without getting permission from airport authorities, as officially the air base had been closed on that night. Even worse they didn't give any response when contacted by air controller.
''The chopper currently parked at apron shelter of Sultan Iskandar Muda air base. We can't let the crew go yet until the chopper owner arrived,'' Lt. Col. Ahmad Sajili, the air base commander, told Waspada. The chopper made emergency landing in mountain area of Ladong village, sub-district of Masjid Raya, Aceh Besar, because of experiencing technical problems. All of the 4 crews are safe.
According to Aceh branch of PT Angkasa Pura II, the airport operator, airport staff were waiting for the helicopter until 03.00 the next day. On the morning, Air Serv staff told them that the chopper has to leave without any notification because of the emergency situation. They want to monitor situation on the Aceh beaches after the earthquakes.
''They want make sure whether there are tsunami or not. Despite their noble intention, we still gave them a serious warning,'' said Angkasa Pura head T Darmansah.
The emergency landing location reported as isolated and hard to reach. On Monday (4/4), Indonesian soldier from Koramil 05 Krueng Raya has been dispatched to the area to make inspection, but they wouldn't arrived at the location until the next two or three days. The area is only accessible on foot. © sh
Saturday, 09-April-2005, 14:31:45
Banda Aceh, Waspada - Air Serv International's helicopter Bell 212, which had to make emergency landing at Ladong village when latest big earthquake hit Sumatra (28/3), has been evacuated to Indonesian Air Force base at Blang Bintang, Aceh Besar. The badly damaged helicopter airlifted on Monday (3/4) using UN Mi 8 helicopter.
The Air Serv helicopter incident, as reported by Waspada on Tuesday, happened when Sumatra island hit by latest earthquake on 28 March. The chopper rented by the US NGO from local companies to conduct rescue mission. When the earthquake hit the island, at 23:55 the chopper left the airport without getting permission from airport authorities, as officially the air base had been closed on that night. Even worse they didn't give any response when contacted by air controller.
''The chopper currently parked at apron shelter of Sultan Iskandar Muda air base. We can't let the crew go yet until the chopper owner arrived,'' Lt. Col. Ahmad Sajili, the air base commander, told Waspada. The chopper made emergency landing in mountain area of Ladong village, sub-district of Masjid Raya, Aceh Besar, because of experiencing technical problems. All of the 4 crews are safe.
According to Aceh branch of PT Angkasa Pura II, the airport operator, airport staff were waiting for the helicopter until 03.00 the next day. On the morning, Air Serv staff told them that the chopper has to leave without any notification because of the emergency situation. They want to monitor situation on the Aceh beaches after the earthquakes.
''They want make sure whether there are tsunami or not. Despite their noble intention, we still gave them a serious warning,'' said Angkasa Pura head T Darmansah.
The emergency landing location reported as isolated and hard to reach. On Monday (4/4), Indonesian soldier from Koramil 05 Krueng Raya has been dispatched to the area to make inspection, but they wouldn't arrived at the location until the next two or three days. The area is only accessible on foot. © sh
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Just wanted to say, again, a very big thanks and a pat on the back to all of you who are giving freely of your time an energy to bring relief to this region, some three months or more after the event. rest assured you have not been forgotten, and I surely know that you will be repaid in good 'karma' for a long time to come.
Thanks for posting these pictures, and keeping us updated, even though you must all be so very tired and busy.
I really think it would be great if one of the programs like Australian Story would show our country just how much work you guys are doing (and what you are giving up in terms of time, work, energy and so on).
Keep up the brilliant work.
Sincerely,
Sky
Thanks for posting these pictures, and keeping us updated, even though you must all be so very tired and busy.
I really think it would be great if one of the programs like Australian Story would show our country just how much work you guys are doing (and what you are giving up in terms of time, work, energy and so on).
Keep up the brilliant work.
Sincerely,
Sky
South African Tsunami Helicopter Make Profit in Indonesia
Sunday, 17-April-2005, 23:42:43 Clicks: 38
Jakarta, Indonesia-Relief -- Naturelink, South African company, dispatched 5 helicopters to Indonesia on early January to help tsunami victim in Aceh. Funded in part by South African government, the relief choper makes profit too during its mission in Indonesia tsunami zone.
Commercial Aviation Association of South Africa (CAASA) said on its January newsletter, instead of helping South African relief workers, such as Global Relief, the choppers provide commercial flight for Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and World Vision.
Christine Louw, leader of Global Relief team in Meulaboh, Sumatra, told CAASA in January that they thought they had an 'understanding' that they could count on support from two of the helicopters flown to Sumatra on 6 January as part of the humanitarian mission.
Instead, the helicopters were being paid for at commercial rates of ''well over $2000 per hour'', according to Don Cressman, vice-president of Air Serv International, a US-based non-profit organisation, and Chris Briers, CEO of Naturelink.
Global Relief could not afford the rates and was having to rely on US military helicopters instead, Louw said.
Last Wednesday, Low and his team has return to Johannesburg from Meulaboh.
Briers and Cressman said that about half of the SA government’s donation of $750 000 had gone towards the cost of flying an Ilyushin-76, laden with the two helicopters and supplies to Sumatra, and, unlike this flight, the costs of shipping three more helicopters from South Africa to Sumatra later had been covered by the NGOs that had requested their services.
''It is sad that bad feeling has been created between organisations doing a tremendous amount of good in bringing aid to those hit so hard by the tsunami,'' wrote CAASA
Sunday, 17-April-2005, 23:42:43 Clicks: 38
Jakarta, Indonesia-Relief -- Naturelink, South African company, dispatched 5 helicopters to Indonesia on early January to help tsunami victim in Aceh. Funded in part by South African government, the relief choper makes profit too during its mission in Indonesia tsunami zone.
Commercial Aviation Association of South Africa (CAASA) said on its January newsletter, instead of helping South African relief workers, such as Global Relief, the choppers provide commercial flight for Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and World Vision.
Christine Louw, leader of Global Relief team in Meulaboh, Sumatra, told CAASA in January that they thought they had an 'understanding' that they could count on support from two of the helicopters flown to Sumatra on 6 January as part of the humanitarian mission.
Instead, the helicopters were being paid for at commercial rates of ''well over $2000 per hour'', according to Don Cressman, vice-president of Air Serv International, a US-based non-profit organisation, and Chris Briers, CEO of Naturelink.
Global Relief could not afford the rates and was having to rely on US military helicopters instead, Louw said.
Last Wednesday, Low and his team has return to Johannesburg from Meulaboh.
Briers and Cressman said that about half of the SA government’s donation of $750 000 had gone towards the cost of flying an Ilyushin-76, laden with the two helicopters and supplies to Sumatra, and, unlike this flight, the costs of shipping three more helicopters from South Africa to Sumatra later had been covered by the NGOs that had requested their services.
''It is sad that bad feeling has been created between organisations doing a tremendous amount of good in bringing aid to those hit so hard by the tsunami,'' wrote CAASA
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Now we get to the 'nitty gritty' of it all.
SkySista says: "...a pat on the back to all of you who are giving freely of your time an energy to bring relief to this region..."
To those who did truly give freely of their time and energy I join SkySista and take my hat off to you, but I would suggest that the majority of relief workers, in all fields, were accepting some form of remuneration. Aid work and disaster relief is a business.
And why not? Like millions of others that couldn’t contribute something significant in the terms of skills appropriate to the relief scenario, I donated cash. I expected that the cash would purchase, at a commercial rate, the services that were needed – including helicopter flight time.
As has been said many times before there are two kinds of people in the helicopter world, mercenaries or missionaries; and there are not many of the latter. Even the missionaries were selling surplus helicopter time to other relief organizations but at below market rate (US$700 per hour for a Bell 206L4 for example). The time that was not ‘sold’ will be paid for from donations that are raised by the missions and in the souls that are converted to the beliefs of that particular mission.
A very large effort was provide by the government helicopters of many countries. Perhaps there was no direct charge for this service but it wasn’t free, the taxpayers in the countries paying for the services.
I am skeptical enough to believe that the owners of helicopters based in as far-flung locations as North Island, New Zealand, and Oregon, USA, did not send their machines to Indian Ocean locations expecting to make a big loss. I acknowledge that several organizations took a commercial risk by not getting prepaid before they dispatched the helicopter, but I would suggest that very few ‘caught a cold’ commercially from the exercise.
As indicated in Cyclic Hotlines post Naturelink made a large effort, however AirServ is their established business partner and as is indicated in the report it was a commercial venture. They have done a good job and I hope that the result appears on their company’s bottom line.
It would be interesting to know whether they, along with all the other contributors that ‘parachuted’ in to places like Sumatra, ‘played the game’ whilst making their profits, or was the amount of flying that was available just too good to miss. Did standards and business ethics disappear out of the window? How did these organizations handle the issues of Operating Permits, Flight Time Limitations, adequate maintenance facilities, duplicate inspections, withholding tax, work permits for staff, etc.? How many of the laws of the host country and the country of register of the aircraft were flaunted, perhaps to the detriment of the helicopter industry? How were the bribes that were paid out by the helicopter crews to jump the queue for the refuel truck justified, and accounted for? That is just one example of many forms of corruption that took place, I am sure the list is long! Many of the images of the disaster areas that have been published were, I would suggest, taken in violation of the security laws of the country in which the disaster took place. Not every country permits aerial photographs to be taken at will.
In short my question is this. Does everyone believe that the activities, as a whole, of the helicopter operators (both civil and military) that took part in the relief work benefited our industry? If yes, why is there little sign of growth in the indigenous helicopter industries in the countries affected? Why have the ‘fat cats’ pulled out and left only the Low Cost Operators active in country?
As the instructions used to say “Light blue touch paper and retire immediately”!
SkySista says: "...a pat on the back to all of you who are giving freely of your time an energy to bring relief to this region..."
To those who did truly give freely of their time and energy I join SkySista and take my hat off to you, but I would suggest that the majority of relief workers, in all fields, were accepting some form of remuneration. Aid work and disaster relief is a business.
And why not? Like millions of others that couldn’t contribute something significant in the terms of skills appropriate to the relief scenario, I donated cash. I expected that the cash would purchase, at a commercial rate, the services that were needed – including helicopter flight time.
As has been said many times before there are two kinds of people in the helicopter world, mercenaries or missionaries; and there are not many of the latter. Even the missionaries were selling surplus helicopter time to other relief organizations but at below market rate (US$700 per hour for a Bell 206L4 for example). The time that was not ‘sold’ will be paid for from donations that are raised by the missions and in the souls that are converted to the beliefs of that particular mission.
A very large effort was provide by the government helicopters of many countries. Perhaps there was no direct charge for this service but it wasn’t free, the taxpayers in the countries paying for the services.
I am skeptical enough to believe that the owners of helicopters based in as far-flung locations as North Island, New Zealand, and Oregon, USA, did not send their machines to Indian Ocean locations expecting to make a big loss. I acknowledge that several organizations took a commercial risk by not getting prepaid before they dispatched the helicopter, but I would suggest that very few ‘caught a cold’ commercially from the exercise.
As indicated in Cyclic Hotlines post Naturelink made a large effort, however AirServ is their established business partner and as is indicated in the report it was a commercial venture. They have done a good job and I hope that the result appears on their company’s bottom line.
It would be interesting to know whether they, along with all the other contributors that ‘parachuted’ in to places like Sumatra, ‘played the game’ whilst making their profits, or was the amount of flying that was available just too good to miss. Did standards and business ethics disappear out of the window? How did these organizations handle the issues of Operating Permits, Flight Time Limitations, adequate maintenance facilities, duplicate inspections, withholding tax, work permits for staff, etc.? How many of the laws of the host country and the country of register of the aircraft were flaunted, perhaps to the detriment of the helicopter industry? How were the bribes that were paid out by the helicopter crews to jump the queue for the refuel truck justified, and accounted for? That is just one example of many forms of corruption that took place, I am sure the list is long! Many of the images of the disaster areas that have been published were, I would suggest, taken in violation of the security laws of the country in which the disaster took place. Not every country permits aerial photographs to be taken at will.
In short my question is this. Does everyone believe that the activities, as a whole, of the helicopter operators (both civil and military) that took part in the relief work benefited our industry? If yes, why is there little sign of growth in the indigenous helicopter industries in the countries affected? Why have the ‘fat cats’ pulled out and left only the Low Cost Operators active in country?
As the instructions used to say “Light blue touch paper and retire immediately”!
