FlightAware Flight Tracker Hop-a-jet Lear 35 diverted yesterday from MTPP due to crowding, and ended up having to dump his fuel to make a landing at MKJP.
As MKJP Kingston was the site of the recent American Airlines accident, the emergency services in Jamaica apparently went a little over board when they heard a jet was circling dumping fuel.
Also a US military C130 en route to MTPP diverted to Homestead AFB when the fuselage filled with smoke, aircraft was seen parked on the runway at Homestead with smoke billowing out the doors.
A U.S. government plane carrying medical personnel into Haiti was diverted to another Caribbean island Thursday night after getting caught in the backwash of a plane landing at the crowded Port-au-Prince airport.
NPR’s Joanne Silberner, who was on board the plane, said the incident caused the aircraft’s engine to stall, though the pilot managed to stabilize the situation
Considering it was a news release, from I’ll assume a non-aviation writer, who quoted the CEO of the Jamaican Airport Authority - I looked up his bio, he is highly educated - but no aviation background.
I’ll assume the Hop-a-Jet Lear had some sort of concern, but checking the airport info I see Kingston’s runway is 8.900 feet!!! So the dumping fuel I agree doesn’t make sense?
As for Hop-a-Jet - the late Harvey Hop’s old company (One of the founders of corporate air charter) - I understand they have donated the use of their Challenger Jets, and Learjets to fly medical staff and victims in and out of Haiti.
I note on FlightAware multiple Hop-a-Jet flights into the area.
Flyboy…have you transitioned thru cuban airspace yet? There was a squawk about medevacs being allowed overflights…wouldnt doing so shave a consideral amount of time insead of the inagua route?
When I looked at the picture of the drone in* that *configuration…I immediately got the “flight of the valkyries” music in my head. Geez Frank…I was referring to a medevac corridor not a liberation.
As you get in, are they still placing A/C in holding patterns or has that relieved itself a little since the onset? In reference to arriving MTTP, Read somewhere that they’re prioritizing arrivals…finally some common sense amid this crisis.
I did 3 turns in the hold at GANVI going into MTPP- the C-17 I almost smacked into was also holding there but decided to fly past GANVI when I was cleared for the approach.
You get a slot time and you need to be there within 20min of your time but that won’t mean you won’t hold.
Hmmm, that would be why our MD-11 went to Las Americas Airport (Punta Caucedo) rather than Haiti. We loaded up a planeload of relief supplies from World Vision last Sunday night in Denver.
Hmm, looking forward to it… Do you know how much is usable? NBAA was saying only the asphalt portion is usable, is that accurate? Thanks for your help, and I’ll pass along my experience.
A good story about the charitable work Fedex is doing - helping to get local supplies down there, since our AFB declined to ship this stuff. I know we’ve got a couple of you FX guys on here - good job! Stuff like this needs more publicity - there’s alot of cost Fedex absorbed helping out with this relief effort that goes unnoticed.
