This is a letter from one of my husband's former co-workers at Air Canada.
He was in Haiti last week as the earthquake hit - what an experience!
I would just like to pass on a liitle experience ,to you and your readers,that happened to me last tuesday 12 april.2010 .
Even though I retired In 2004 in the capacity of a cert acft tech( LLAT) I still dabble in the business on contract working for a few small airlines around Dorval.
Last Tuesday I was assinged to fly to PAP haiti with Sunwing Airlines just for maintenance support in case something goes wrong down there..(Sunwing puts an AME on board that weekly southern flt ,only ,as there is a lack of resources at that airport.)We arrived in PAP on time, but off loading was slow as was boarding very slow.AC acft 681arrived after us and left before us luckily for them.Just as we were about to leave ,3 hours late ,with the cabin door about to close and everyone strapped in their seats the aircraft was violently shook rocking back and forth numerous times for what I felt to be a good 8 to 10 seconds .I had never felt anything like this in my life (even swinging a 747 landing gear on jacks in the hangar was not half as scary as this)Fortunately the large tires and the oleos on the 737-8 took up most of the shocks from the tremors whick were recorded to be 7.5 on the rhicter scale.While all this was going on you could see the dust plooms all around us from buildings collapsing especially on the hill behind the terminal building.
At this point the always well dressed (retro)and reserved passengers began to panic.The flight attendants and pilots did a wonderful job of maintaining calmness and control and assured the passengers the safest place was on the aircraft as the pilots in the cockpit were able to see the terminal building cracking and pieces falling off it.As there was no communication anywhere I took it upon myself to do a detailed inspection of the aircraft especially in the landing gear areas, wings and fuselage and door areas where the airstairs had been.No damage found and no fuel leaks.Hurrah.The F/O was able to raise DXP and MCC in yyz on a portable satellite phone which we carry in the cockpit ,to inform them of our situation.
After a short while the runway was inspected and fortunately no cracks or fissures were found.We were the first ones to leave with an AA 767 leaving just after us. I thank my lucky stars we got out of there that soon as there was no where to go that was safe!!
These poor people of Haiti have had nothing but misery and bad luck dumped upon them in the last few years .They have experienced everything from anarchy.hurricanes, extreme poverty and now this.I appeal to all our readers and confreres to donate something to a charity of your choice and make sure its targeted for Haiti.
Haiti - Close Call!
Linear Mode
