The United States Air Force airdrop element of the US military’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti got underway on January 18th 2010 with the initial supply of thousands of litres of water and ready meals. Previously, the idea of airdrops had been written off on account of the danger aspect, but airport congestion has stopped full distribution of aid on the ground. So far, one airdrop has taken place over a limited area, but the US armed forces are said to be contemplating performing them across the island as a whole.

1,000 members of the US armed forces have already been deployed to Haiti, and their presence is set to be supplemented by over 2,000 US Marines. They are supported by a wide array of military infrastructure including helicopters, medical equipment and earth-moving vehicles.

Haiti Earthquake Airdrop

The Haiti earthquake airdrop was carried out by a USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft over a designated area eight kilometres north of the Haitian capital, Port-Au-Prince, according to comments made to news agency the Associated Press by a US Army representative. This aircraft had earlier set out from North Carolina’s Pope Air Force Base, from which global humanitarian flights are flown on a regular basis.

Several days back, Robert Gates – the US Defence Secretary – explained that airdrops were a non-starter, on account of the prospect of violence if the food, water and other products failed to be spread around fairly. “It seems to me that - without having any structure on the ground in terms of distribution - an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff”, Gates told media representatives. “So without any structure for distribution or to provide security when things become available, then it seems to me that's a formula for contributing to chaos rather than - rather than preventing it.”

Haiti: US Military Aid

In all, 9,600 water bottles and 42,000 meals were airlifted into Haiti and dropped from an altitude of 600 feet, courtesy of the C-17. Whether repeated airdrops will take place as part of the US military Haiti aid initiative was not immediately known as these words were typed.

Haiti was hit by a major earthquake on January 12th 2010 which killed up to 50,000 people and touched millions more in some way.

See also:

US Armed Forces Aid Haiti Earthquake Victims