Are there Air Drops going on in Haiti???

Air drops of food and survival supplies were always traditional in disaster areas where folks were in dire need.
Does any one remember the Kurds in the first Gulf War. Loaves of bread were dropped.
I hope they are not dropping the $10 bills the three stooges were asking for.

[edit on 17-1-2010 by Donny 4 million]

I asked the mods to put this tread in the right place.
I think they may be correct. Is this a conspiracy or news?
I cannot find any news that air drops are being used in Haiti.
It does not make good sense.

Yes there are.
There were pictures in local news, yesterday. If I can dig up the story, I will post it.

Ed:
Couldn't find the local story that I saw, but here is Liveleak... Video included.

Haiti Drop


[edit on 17-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

Originally posted by LadySkadi
Yes there are.
There were pictures in local news, yesterday. If I can dig up the story, I will post it.

Ed:
Couldn't find the local story that I saw, but here is Liveleak... Video included.

Haiti Drop


[edit on 17-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

Great, thanks for the find LadySkadi

This is good news but we have Way larger aircraft than helicopters to dispense aid.
And so do all the other adjoining countries. We have done it before at more remote locations.
It's as if no one could have been saved at the WTC from above.
I hope I fear for naught.

It is interesting that the only search results for Haitian air drops are ones questioning why there are none.
This thread is one of the top AOL search URLS.
One link claims Gates refuses to drop due to riots.
Now tell me what the heck are those poor folks going to do without supplies. RIOT
This approach stinks to me.

Look at a topographic map of Haiti and you'll see why larger scale airdrops are not happening. You can't make drops on people and the areas most in need offer very few safe loactions to make the drops. And still it will require people to make their way to the drop zone. This provides and advantage to the more mobile and arguably less in-need people and can lead to lawlessness and predation. What they're trying to don on the ground is make drops in secured drop zones and then controlling the distribution so that it is done fairly. This also allows approriately equipped personnel to bring supplies into nearby inaccessible areas or areas with alot on non-ambulatory people.

There have been drops, but it's hard to tell if it is just a PR thing. Not to mention that trying to feed thousands of refugees is like feeding an psychiatric ward patient a tiny ham when they want to eat the whole pig.

Kind of makes me wonder if they are encouraging civil unrest.

Like the saying goes. "Don't share, unless you have enough for everybody."

I think Katrina is still fresh in our minds though. How did all those donations work out last time?

Seems kinda convenient for TPTB actually.

reply to post by jtma508


Thank for addressing a tragic situation.
My idea of the kind of drop that needs to be made
is not one in mass or zones but scattered so the distribution happens with the drop.
Take a C130 full of pumpernickel loaves, open the cargo door
and start to push them out fifty or a hundred at a time until the cargo area is empty.

Do this with tarps and medicine etc. so no one has control of the supplies but the first to grab them.

Originally posted by 12.21.12
There have been drops, but it's hard to tell if it is just a PR thing. Not to mention that trying to feed thousands of refugees is like feeding an psychiatric ward patient a tiny ham when they want to eat the whole pig.

Kind of makes me wonder if they are encouraging civil unrest.

Like the saying goes. "Don't share, unless you have enough for everybody."

I think Katrina is still fresh in our minds though. How did all those donations work out last time?

Seems kinda convenient for TPTB actually.

Yeah, this kinda freaks me out.
That's why I didn't mind this thread winding up here in a conspiracy board instead of news. I was hoping we would get a lot of response that they were raining good stuff all over those very needy folks.
Time will tell. The US has been such a failure in recent years and crap like this won't help.
thanks for the contribution

Airdrops have been infrequent and get a lot of bad press, including a comment from one Haitian national who said that it was complete chaos and dangerous because of people bumping into each other in the scurry to collect the few items being dropped. You would think it would be an ideal way to distribute food (I did) to areas where security fears a predominant. Even the locals prefer the orderly, managed food lines.

reply to post by elfie


Exactly. As I've said on other similar threads, some may not believe it but the people managing the logistics of all thisactually know what they are doing. This is not some local/state effort like we saw in Katrina but a highly coordinated effort by consummate professionals. It will never be fast enough (I'm sure even the responders would agree) but it is going as quickly as is humanly possible under the worst of possible conditions.

This is what I am talking about.
To bad the Aussies are so far a way.

From www.un.org/News /Press/docs/1999


Press Release
WFP/1053


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL AIRDROPS IN EAST TIMOR
19990917
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



ROME, 17 September (WFP) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said that the first humanitarian airdrops were completed successfully in East Timor today, with the delivery of desperately needed food and blankets to tens of thousands of people hiding in the mountains from political violence.

Two C-130 cargo planes lent to the WFP by the Australian defence force left Darwin earlier today and performed airdrops in three locations in East Timor. This was the first humanitarian assistance to reach these East Timorese since they fled into the mountains right after the 30 August referendum on independence.

The Australian Government donated the rice, some 15 tons or enough for 30,000 people for one day. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) donated the blankets.

“We are very pleased that we have finally been able to start food deliveries to East Timor”, said Judith Cheng-Hopkins, WFP Director for Asia. “We knew that there were at least 50,000 people in an extremely vulnerable state form more than a week of foraging for food and sleeping in very cold temperatures without adequate covering”.

The WFP, the world’s largest food aid agency, which supervises the Darwin-based logistics operations for East Timor, plans to continue air drops, with rice and ready-to-eat meals donated by the United States which are due to arrive in Darwin early tomorrow.

The East Timor drops are taking place in accordance with WFP’s strict safety conditions of a clearly marked “drop zone” where a ground team is in place with the means to communicate with the aircraft during the operation.

The WFP also plans to execute next week the first ever “snow Drop” delivery of food, a unique air delivery system developed by the United Nations food aid agency in conjunction with a private aviation company, Safair Private Ltd., and United Kingdom- based Fortified Foods.

The WFP has deployed a Hercules C-130 to drop 350,000 plastic 200- gram packets of high-energy biscuits, which are packed in such a way that they float and circle as they fall to ensure a soft landing.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2 - Press Release WFP/1053 17 September 1999

It is a less dangerous operation than the conventional airdrop and does not require a special drop zone.

The “snow drop” will be available for East Timor as early as Monday, and the C-130 will be used for conventional food drops as well.

The WFP has just launched a $5.6 million emergency operation for East Timor, to start as soon as security conditions permit. The aid agency will give a food “basket” of maize, high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil and pulses to 150,000 of the most vulnerable people for two months. At the same time, the agency will conduct as assessment of food needs in the province in order to prepare a subsequent six-month plan for a larger number of people.

The East Timor operation will be run out of an $8 million logistics programme for East Timor based on a joint logistics cell in Darwin which will co-ordinate the storage and movement of humanitarian aid, two helicopters for rapid-response food deliveries and an “air bridge” for all relief workers in the region.

For more information please contact: Trevor Rowe—-Spokesman, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-6 6513-2602; Brenda Barton—-Regional Information Officer/WFP Nairobi, Tel. +254-2-622594; Christiane Berthiaume—-WFP Information Officer/WFP Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9799564; Abby Spring—-WFP Information Officer/WFP New York, Tel. +1-212-963-5196.

reply to post by jtma508


"a highly coordinated effort by consummate professionals"

that's what they said about Katrina.

It's plain and simple what they need to do: Put soldiers in a designated area. Drop the supplies there. Everyone forms a line, and gets rations.

In the less populated areas that are harder to get to, you can still drop aid. but there the military presence won't be needed as much. They just need supplies right now.

It should be raining supplies 3 times a day in Haiti right now.

reply to post by iamsupermanv2


I can't agree with you more. The US-- I know can drop tons of a wide variety of bombs and lead seemingly any where at any time. Something fishy going on and it should be scrutinized.

Here is some light but nowheres near the end of the tunnel.
There are some photos if you want to pull them up.


CBS NEWS
NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2010
U.S. Military Begins Air Drops in Haiti
Cargo Planes to Drop Hundreds of Aid Bundles Containing Food and Water over Three Days print Share
22 Comments

The U.S. military begun a series of air drops Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, to deliver aid supplies to the Haitian people. (CBS)


The U.S. military began a series of air drops of aid packages containing food and water at three secure sites in Haiti Jan. 18, 2010. (CBS)

Play CBS Video Video Help from Above
The U.S. military has airdropped aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate Haitians. As David Martin reports, getting supplies to the people in need is proving extremely difficult.

Video Haiti: The Struggle To Secure Relief
Mark Schneider of the international Crisis Group describes to Katie Couric the difficulties of distributing supplies on the ground in Haiti.

Video UN Troops Fire Rubber Bullet into Crowd
Controlled chaos turned to confrontation when UN peace keepers were ordered to clear the street filled with Haitian men seeking jobs. Watch "The CBS Evening News" tonight, Monday, Jan. 18th, 6:30 p.m., ET/PT

Photo Essay Prayers for Haiti
From Haiti and beyond, services held for earthquake victims, survivors

Photo Essay Children of Haiti
Images of the earthquake's youngest survivors

Stories
Foreigners Dead, Missing after Haiti Quake
U.N. Chief Wants More Haiti Peacekeepers
(CBS) With ground transportation in Haiti severely limited following last week's massive earthquake, the U.S. military begun a series of air drops Monday afternoon to deliver aid supplies to the Haitian people.

CBS News has learned that the Air Force is flying C-17 transport planes out of Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, N.C. Each plane will deliver 40 aid bundles per trip and the military is planning to deliver 600 bundles over three days. The military has secured three drop zones where the aircraft can unload from an altitude of about 1,000 feet.

Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti
Haiti Quake: How You can Help

A plane already in the air is set to deliver 14,000 MREs - the calorie-dense "meals ready to eat" used by the military in combat zones - and 14,000 quarts of water.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Reuters Friday that air drops in the immediate aftermath of the quake would have been "a formula for contributing to chaos rather than preventing it."

"Without having any structure on the ground, in terms of distribution, that an air drop is simply going to lead to riots as people go after that stuff," he said.

Sixteen ships and 48 helicopters are offshore flying in water and taking out the injured, but the help the U.S. promised has not arrived as quickly as planned, reports CBS News correspondent David Marin. The Pentagon said it would have 10,000 men and women either ashore or afloat by Monday. The actual number is less than 7,000. Delays at the airport have put the 82nd Airborne two days behind schedule, and a U.S. officer said Haitian air traffic controllers were simply unable to handle all the incoming flights.

Governments and humanitarian groups have struggled to get aid to the neediest Haitians in the week since the earthquake.

Some incidents of violence in Haiti have hindered rescue workers trying to help earthquake victims, a top official leading the U.S. government's relief efforts said Sunday.

Providing humanitarian aid requires a safe and secure environment, said Lt. Gen. Ken Keen of the U.S. Southern Command. While streets have been largely calm, he said, violence has been increasing.

A leading aid group complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at the U.S.-controlled airport. The general in charge said the U.S. military was "working aggressively" to speed up deliveries.

U.S. Air Force drops 55,000 pounds of food, water into Haiti

According to this article it states that there were aid workers in place to help with the distribution before the drop of 40 pallets. Very good news!

Originally posted by jtma508
Look at a topographic map of Haiti and you'll see why larger scale airdrops are not happening. You can't make drops on people and the areas most in need offer very few safe loactions to make the drops. And still it will require people to make their way to the drop zone. This provides and advantage to the more mobile and arguably less in-need people and can lead to lawlessness and predation. What they're trying to don on the ground is make drops in secured drop zones and then controlling the distribution so that it is done fairly. This also allows approriately equipped personnel to bring supplies into nearby inaccessible areas or areas with alot on non-ambulatory people.

so the first thing to do is drop humvees and trailers or some sort of vehicle and hurry the supplies to the needy. and drop troops/rescuers at the same time to dig out the unfortunate. too simple?

Hi Donny

From what I have seen on Sky News they are using aircraft and not just helicopters to make drops, I am not an American so don't know what the usual procedure is or the names of the planes but they looked QUITE big to me and they were pushing them out of the back of the plane with the packages attached to parachutes. Hope this helps ease your mind a bit??

[edit on 19/1/10 by wiser3]

edit to correct spelling!

[edit on 19/1/10 by wiser3]

Been watching air drops on UK TV.
It looked pretty random to me with people scrambling to get stuff. Maybe there were aid workers on the ground but I didn't see any.
I should imagine this is a last resort scenario as people could very well kill each other in the rush.

reply to post by elfie


elfie nice find. Thanks
In my opinion from experience in situations like this the wider the area saturated with supplies and the fewer "control" personal the better. Control folks create focal points and create chaos.
If you scatter drop you don't create mobs and no one gets to attack and commandeer the bigger pay loads.