When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti this August, killing and injuring thousands, Tradewind Aviation sprang into action to aid relief efforts. Tradewind’s turboprops were tapped to deliver 1,200 meals for World Central Kitchen, the widely lauded non-profit relief organization of Chef José Andrés. They also airlifted much needed medical teams, supplies, trauma gear, and antibiotics for over 10,000 people.
It wasn’t the first time Tradewind had flown for disaster relief flights, and it won’t be the last. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and our business along the way. Most importantly, we’ve learned how to best help those in need.
A Helping Hand During Hurricane Katrina
Tradewind has been in business for 20 years and has contributed to disaster relief for 15 of them. Our first relief effort was in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans. With the federal government caught flat-footed, we sent two turboprops to help in any way possible.
What quickly became apparent was that our two planes weren’t much use for transporting tons of bottled water or hundreds of relief workers, but they were incredibly helpful for moving high-value workers, such as medical personnel, to hard-to-access locations. We also learned that just because a company has relief-ready assets, it doesn’t always mean they should be haphazardly thrown into the mix. It is much better to discuss the best ways to help beforehand – even if it means writing a check instead.
Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Flights
We figured out several ways to help in the disasters following Katrina. The most notable may be when an earthquake struck the Ouest department of Haiti in 2010. One of our dispatchers happened to be doing missionary work in the region at the time. Her family reached out to us to aid in her evacuation. Fortunately, we have a large base in Puerto Rico. With the help of our aviation contacts and connections to local relief organizations, we were able to overcome the challenges presented by Haiti’s mountainous geography.
One of our contacts sent us an email with a Google Maps view of the town where our dispatcher was located. There was no airport, but there was a two-lane road with markings revealing where a plane could land: essentially, between two close bridges. I recall being perplexed at how a local knew to mark up the image. Turns out drug runners had been using the road as a landing strip for years, and everybody knew it. If drug runners could land there, we figured, Tradewind pilots could, too!
Still, we wondered what value we could bring to Ouest’s relief efforts beyond rescuing our colleague. When we learned that JetBlue was flying medical personnel from the States to the international airport in Santiago, Dominican Republic, we flew a couple of our Cessna Grand Caravans there as well and set up shop to transport the physicians on the next leg of their journey. Flying planes with pilots, we could reduce 16-hour bus rides into Haiti to 2 hour disaster relief flights by turboprop. We also transported water purification plants, which are of utmost importance in any disaster.
Lessons Learned
What lessons were learned from this experience? For Tradewind, it was to responsibly provide aid that leverages our specific expertise and brings the highest value response to the most severely affected locales. We also learned that all our team members – from pilots to ground crew to administrative personnel– were ready to fall over each other to volunteer in such situations. It’s human nature to help those in need, especially when one has the expertise and equipment to do so. Amongst our staff the desire to help was so great that we ended up having to distribute volunteer slots according to seniority.
Hurricane Irma Relief Efforts
Our team’s eagerness to help was just as enthusiastic when Tradewind aided St Barths following Hurricane Irma in 2017. The damage from the storm was so extensive that it was essentially all-hands-on deck when we decided to go in. Everyone at Tradewind wanted to be on those planes.
Our team at the San Juan, Puerto Rico airport dispatched our entire fleet of turboprops to transport vital equipment. This included generators and various relief goods and supplies. Essentially, our goal was to provide a lifeline and connectivity for St Barths’ islanders. They hadn’t been abandoned and we were here to offer as much aid as we possibly could. In the end, Bruno Magras, President of the Federation of Saint-Barthélemy (and owner of one of our main competitors on the island) even thanked us by name – the first time he’d ever mentioned Tradewind in public.
It took six weeks for the supply chain to be restored to St. Barths, but just two weeks after Irma, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, leaving extensive damage and more than 3,000 fatalities. After transporting all that we could from Puerto Rico to St. Barths, we immediately started flying what we could back – not just generators, but water and food supplies, too. Our relief efforts lasted several weeks and we temporarily shifted our base to Antigua.
The Greater Good
Perhaps the most difficult thing in every relief effort Tradewind has undertaken has been organizing needs and priorities. When people are suffering, you want to respond quickly, but the value of disaster relief flights are not only determined by what they bring, but also by what they don’t.
It has also been very important to us not to broadcast our relief efforts too heavily, lest some accuse us of trying to boost business. Honestly, we’re typically too busy in our day-to-day operations to think about polishing our corporate image. Although, we do let clients know what we’re up to from time to time.
Furthermore, there is a growing consensus in the private aviation community that our industry should engage more in disaster relief. According to the 2019 Fleet Report of Bart International, there were over 21,800 private jets registered in the U.S.– the biggest business aviation fleet in the world. Many of those planes sit idle on any given day. Owners ought to be increasingly open to donating them to help in emergency situations as needed.
It’s easy to view the private aviation industry as a luxurious extravagance for the moneyed few — or even a waste. And of course, everyone has a right to their own opinion. But as shown by Tradewind and the many other private aviation outfits that contribute to disaster relief efforts, value is relative: whether flying a client to finalize a private equity deal or an orthopedic surgeon to save someone’s limb after an earthquake, the time saved and convenience offered by aviation are key. Sometimes private aviation is a comfort thing; other times, it’s a matter of life and death.