NBAA Activates HERO Database for Hurricane Relief Effort

NBAA has activated its Humanitarian Emergency Response Operator (HERO) Database to help connect the business aviation community with relief efforts in response to the devastation Hurricane Melissa wreaked in Jamaica. The HERO database provides basic information on people in the business aviation community who are available for disaster response efforts.

The Category 5 hurricane came ashore on the island nation on Tuesday, leaving more than half a million residents without power, severing communications throughout, and causing widespread damage, according to reports.

Along with the HERO database, NBAA noted that Operation Air Drop, AERObridge, Airlink, and other organizations are accepting aid from the business aviation community to help with relief efforts.

By late Thursday, the only airport to remain open to commercial and general aviation operations in Jamaica was Kingston Norman Manley International Airport (MKJP). Operations at the facility, about 525 nm from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (KFXE), are limited.

Given the distance and uncertainty surrounding the conditions there, NBAA senior v-p of safety, security, sustainability, and international operations Doug Carr advised that longer-range business and commercial aircraft may be best suited for initial humanitarian operations. “Additionally, requests for overflight permits to transit Cuban airspace may be delayed,” Carr further noted. “Operators must also secure necessary permission to fly into Jamaica.”

Work is underway to reopen Ian Fleming International Airport (MKBS) in Ocho Rios, but reports from the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) are that the third major airport on the island, Montego Bay-Sangster International Airport (MKJS), was very badly hit, according to NBAA.

“We have all hands on deck to get up and running as quickly as possible,” said JCAA director general Nari Williams-Singh, noting that several critical systems are back in operation. Williams-Singh also stressed the importance of coordination: “We need to collaborate with our airport operators and the Airports Authority of Jamaica; Jamaica Customs Agency; the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency; and all relevant entities. We are all coordinated, because it’s really an ecosystem and we all have to be in sync.”