Australia sends air traffic marshals to quake-hit Haiti

SYDNEY, Jan 19, 2010 (AFP) - Australia said on Saturday it would deploy a specialist air traffic control team to quake-ravaged Haiti following a US request to help restore order at the nation’s jammed airports.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said a group of specially-trained military air traffic marshals would leave next week for the devastated Caribbean nation in a bid to improve the flow of aid and supplies. There are over 1,400 flights waiting to get into the country as tens of thousands of desperate people struggle to meet even the most basic needs.

“Making Haiti’s airspace and airports effective, safe and useable is crucial to the overall humanitarian effort,” said Rudd. “Overcoming logistical obstacles is one of the keys to making sure assistance that is being provided actually gets to the people of Haiti and making sure their airport and airports are operating effectively,” he added.

The personnel were requested by the United States and would be working at more than one airport, said Rudd, who has already pledged 15 million dollars in emergency aid. The US military this week extended its operations to three airports beyond Port-au-Prince in a bid to free major logjams, with between 120 and 140 flights a day now choking the one-strip runway, which lost its control tower in the quake.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has complained that five of its planes carrying a total of 85 tons (77 tonnes) of medical and relief supplies have been diverted from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic.

The US command said it was prioritising shipments of water, while doctors on the ground are still scrambling to obtain basic medical supplies to care for survivors.