One of the most powerful for the last 200 years the Haitian earthquake caused a great resonance all over the world. The exact number of victims is still unclear. Among those who suffered the effects of the earthquake are also officials of the UN mission in Haiti. The UN office has also been considerably destroyed.
Aviation company “Ukrainian Helicopters” has been operating under the tasks of the UN mission in Haiti since 2007. The main operations of the Ukrainian crews include transportation of passengers, foods, humanitarian cargo, medical evacuation and other tasks determined by the UN.
At present there are 2 Mi-8 MTV-1 helicopters and 13 employees in Haiti, 8 of them are flight crew personnel. Fortunately enough all the company employees and equipment were at a safe distance from the epicenter when the earthquake occurred.
Around midnight (Kyiv time) there was a phone call into the Head Office from Sergey Hontaruk, manager in Haiti who reported about the disaster. (The time difference with Haiti is 7 hours). Sergey informed that all company employees working in the UN mission are safe and sound. For the purposes of safety the helicopters were timely run out of the angar.
The management of the Head Office keeps regular contact with the family members and relatives of our employees. The communication with Haiti is ensured by INMARSAT satellite tracking system since other means of communication are hardly operative.
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