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Assistance to Haiti’s earthquake survivors has been slow to arrive, in part because the quake destroyed the port in the capital, Port-au-Prince. And the airport only has one runway. The US military is managing the airport. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Colonel Brian Reno, director of the Contingency Response Cell at the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center. The Control Center is coordinating the airlift efforts for the humanitarian response in Haiti.

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MARCO WERMAN: One of the reasons that assistance has been slow to arrive is that the airport in Port au Prince has only one runway.  The US military is managing that airport but it’s a 618^th Tanker Control Center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois that’s coordinating the airlift.  Colonel Brian Reno is director of the contingency response cell at the center.  He’s coordinating the airlift efforts for the humanitarian response in Haiti.  So far the airlift control center has transported 2,500 people and 1,700 tons of cargo to Port au Prince, and Colonel Reno says none of it’s been easy.

COLONEL BRIAN RENO: Well one could imagine and we’ve done a huge global outpouring of help, which is heartwarming, but with one runway and a limited ramp it becomes quite the traffic jam, especially when the infrastructure of the airport is damaged by the earthquake.  So it’s a struggle to be able to coordinate with a degraded air traffic control and an airfield that’s just being reestablished managing to get all the people in.

MARCO: Who gets priority on that one landing strip in Port au Prince?  Is there kind of a triage for who gets to land first?

RENO: Absolutely.  I mean the US AID and Southcom are in charge of the total relief effort.

MARCO: [OVERLAPPING] Southcom is the Southern Command.

RENO: And they establish the strategic priorities as far as what we need.  With the port damaged the airport is the only real way in right now.  And so it becomes very critical for them to prioritize and that trickles down to which pieces and parts we have to move first.

MARCO: What are some of the security issues for keeping the airport area safe for planes to come in and unload?

RENO: Well to have an airfield be safe access has to be controlled.  Because having people wander across the runway would not be very good.  Moving propellers and running jet engines just are inherently not safe things when they’re not approached properly.  So securing the airfield and maintaining the airfield control is one of the primary security concerns with operating the airfield.

MARCO: Once a plane lands in Port au Prince what happens next?  Do you have like a time window of how quickly that plane needs to be unloaded and off the runway and going back home?

RENO: The quicker the better is the overall goal.  However it’s, we’re not talking boxes and bags we’re talking pallets that weight many tons or vehicles.  It’s a Herculean effort that we put people and equipment in from Air Mobility Command to help unload the airplanes.

MARCO: Colonel Reno could you give us a sense of just how large your coordination of these aid efforts are into Haiti?  Compared with other events that you helped to manage in the past?

RENO: Sure.  I’ve been working here in the Tanker Air Lift Control Center since 2001 and for a single event in my opinion this has been the biggest, largest, most concentrated effort that I have seen.

MARCO: There has been some criticism about how the US has handled the flow of flights, aid in and out of Haiti.  From your perspective here in the States coordinating this, do you think that there are some things that have fallen through the cracks?

RENO: I’ve been pretty impressed overall at the prioritization and the management and the balancing or juggling act between US military, the US government, non-governmental international aid and flights coming in to the airfield from my perspective.  I think that there’s been a great balance of what’s needed to come in.  I mean if you bring in medical supplies but don’t bring in the doctors it’s of minimal use.   And same vice versa.  If you bring in trucks but not drivers it’s no good.  And if there’s nothing to put in the trucks and drive out there’s still no good.  So it’s a very delicate balancing and juggling act to bring the right mix of stuff in.  I think the authorities have done very well with it.

MARCO: So Colonel Reno what is the biggest challenge in just the days ahead?

RENO: The biggest challenge would be keeping up the intensity and the pace of work.  The strategy or the ability to try to transition from a crisis response to a sustained relief effort.

MARCO: Colonel Brian Reno, director of the contingency response cell of the 618^th Tanker Airlift Control Center thanks very much for your time, sir.

RENO: Thank you Marco.

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