Update - Helicopter operations

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The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is an inter-agency common service administered by WFP to provide safe, efficient, responsive and cost-effective passenger and cargo air services for humanitarian and development agencies and NGO partners. For the Haiti Earthquake response, UNHAS has established a helicopter operation to deliver essential relief goods into and within Haiti.

One Mi-8 ATV and two Mi-171 aircraft were brought in and began operations on January 30 with four days of assessment flights for OCHA. 94 previously unreached villages were assessed over 47 quadrads.

Following this, cargo flights began with an initial three days of cargo deliveries for WHO. On Thursday, February 4, 1.5 mt of medical supplies for WHO to Les Cayes from an established list of key equipment the District Hospital was lacking.

On Friday, February 5, a 1 mt of interagency health kits were delivered to Jeremi for the District Hospital. Each kit provides essential medicines for 10,000 people for three months.

Loading cargo into Mi-8 for WHO, Haiti; photo Esther Russell

                                        WHO logistician unloading cargo in Port du Paix, Haiti; photo Elena Rovaris