Sat, Jan 16, 2010
Paves Way for Additional Earthquake Relief Effort
The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) took steps this
week to facilitate the rapid flow of rescue and relief personnel
and supplies to Haiti following the major earthquake there on
Tuesday.
“The earthquake in Haiti has caused a terrible
humanitarian crisis,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood said. “We want to do all we can to help the Haitian
people begin to put their lives back together.”
The FAA's offer to provide technical assistance for air traffic
management and airport evaluations was accepted by the Haitian
government and a seven member team from the FAA will work with the
Haitians and DOD combat controllers to improve the flow of air
traffic moving in and out of the airport there.
In addition, the USDOT granted two exemptions from current
aviation restrictions, expanding the pool of available aircraft by
making them easier to charter. The first exemption grants authority
to General Services Administration-approved air charter brokers to
act as indirect air carriers. This helps streamline the ability of
the U.S. Government to procure charter air services on short
notice.
The Department also granted authority to a class of carriers
that operate large aircraft in private carriage, allowing them to
evacuate persons from and bring personnel and supplies to the
disaster area, augmenting the current fleet of aircraft operated by
commercial airlines. Without this exemption, such conduct could
violate the Department’s economic licensing requirement for
airlines. Info on the first exemption is filed under docket
DOT-OST-2010-0011 and the second at docket DOT-OST-2010-0010.
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