1. In this article, James Ott of Aviation Week reports that crews from the U.S. are assisting Haitians in staffing a remote temporary Control Tower serving MTPP. Ott reports that only 12 ramp positions were available at the airport. He reports on other difficulties faced by humanitarian flights into MTPP today.
2. Paul McLearly writes about the important role played by the U.S. Air Force's 23rd Tactics Special Tactics Squadron, 720th Special Tactics group a late afternoon post to the Defense Technology Blog at Aviation Week. He writes:
The 720th, based out of Hurlburt Field, Fla. is a force designed to be rapidly deployed to provide the tactical ground-to-air communications required to link up air assets with special operations missions on the ground, and in Haiti, they’re running the show until more help arrives.
Speaking with reporters on a conference cal this afternoon, Lt. Col. Brett J. Nelson, Commander of the 23rd / 720th; said that when his team arrived, “the airfield from a structural perspective was in good condition, but… there were uncontrolled operations going on there for at least twenty-four hours prior to our arrival, so it was in quite a state of disarray on the ramp in particular. The first priority was to get that efficiently organized in some way and we continue to work that effort.”
According to Lt. Col. Nelson, there were as many as 44 aircraft on the ground at the airport this afternoon being unloaded and taking on evacuees. See the article for more information on the work of 720th.
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