Thursday 21 January 2010
ShelterBox pays tribute to Newquay Cornwall Airport
ShelterBox has paid tribute to a team at Newquay Cornwall Airport for their help in getting a plane full of aid flown to Haiti.Emergency shelter for more than 8,000 people was loaded onto a chartered Airbus A300 yesterday and took off for Santa Domingo at 1am this morning. The plane is scheduled to arrive in the Port au Prince tonight at 2030 GMT and the 702 ShelterBoxes and additional 100 tents onboard will be met by the ShelterBox Response Team in Haiti.
Staff at Newquay Cornwall Airport worked through the night to ensure the plane could take off and even put in hours for free after the airfield shut at 10.30pm.
The cargo was loaded by ground handling staff and the fire and rescue team at Newquay Cornwall Airport, a team of personnel from RNAS Culdrose and ShelterBox volunteers.
ShelterBox’s Founder and CEO Tom Henderson said: ‘Getting this plane packed with ShelterBoxes and flying directly out of Newquay Cornwall Airport is a real testament to the spirit of Cornwall.
‘We can’t buy this kind of support and I am deeply grateful to everything done by all parties. This was a unique Cornish effort and I want to pay tribute to the dedication and collective will of all parties involved.’
'Great team effort'
Richard Thomasson, Airport Operations Manager at Newquay Cornwall Airport said: ‘The aircraft departed Newquay at 01:05am having been successfully loaded with 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid. The loading process was a great team effort and would like to thank everyone involved in making the flight happen yesterday.’
Enough emergency shelter for up to 4,000 people has now arrived in Port au Prince with hundreds more ShelterBoxes due to arrive later today.
Initially, ShelterBox’s disaster relief tents are being used in emergency field hospitals and the ShelterBox Response Team in Port au Prince are assessing the best sites for a large scale distribution of emergency shelter.
