The Chinese Government is greatly concerned for the Haitian people following the recent earthquake. Upon news of the disaster, they dispatched an Air China Ltd. charter flight carrying much-needed emergency relief supplies to the affected area.

At 11:00am on January 13, Air China received the request for the charter flight, to which the entire company attached a high priority. Air China took immediate preparatory action, and within one hour summoned every crew member needed, including pilots, stewards, engineers, and security personnel, and moved an A330 aircraft to the designated location for pre-flight maintenance. Because the flight routing involved passing through multinational airspace, the operation, business, and ground logistics departments instituted quick and orderly coordination to expedite all procedures, including flight application, route documents, communication support, and passports and visas.

According to Mr. Li Hang, Lead Captain and Deputy Commander of the First Group, Air China Brigade, the mission involved very limited lead time and a long-haul flight. Haiti is located in the Caribbean Sea with highly-variable weather conditions which have been exacerbated in the post-earthquake environment.  Also, uncertainty surrounded the inbound airport’s communication and navigation system. All these adverse factors posed great challenges to the mission crew. In response to this, Air China made preparations according to charter flight standards and simultaneously commissioned two crews who have flown important missions in the past and have relevant experience. Fang Xinghui, the chief attendant of this mission, has experience spanning numerous international aid and important chartered missions. He led his special crew through its preparation and emergency service provision plans and was confident of another successful mission.

At 18:45, the Air China crew boarded the aircraft and was ready to depart and by 20:00, the disaster relief taskforce arrived at the airfield. At 20:25, flight number CCA6076, Air China’s international aid charter flight, took off from Beijing Capital International Airport. According to sources, in addition to 68 disaster relief specialists, the chartered plane was also loaded with over 20 tons of relief equipment and supplies and three rescue dogs to assist in the mission. The charter flight is expected to stopover in Vancouver for refueling before arriving in Port-Au Prince, Haiti, in approximately 20 hours.