Airline stands firm on bag policy for Haiti rescue workers
January 20, 2010 |10:46 | Airlines By : Team X
While commercial air travel to the Dominican Republic and airlift to Haiti is the only viable way for most American aid workers to get where they need to be, airlines are setting firm limits on the bags they’re permitted to bring even if that means leaving medicines behind as happened Monday in San Diego, and as SDNN reported.
Some tense hours greeted six volunteers with non-profit relief organization Rescue Task Force of Carlsbad at the San Diego International Airport when they checked in. With so many relief agencies flying to American Airlines’ Caribbean hub in the Dominican Republic, the airline was strictly enforcing a limit of two 50 pound bags plus a carry on for all relief workers.
These bags contained many life-saving, vital medications and first aid materials requested by their contacts on the ground in Haiti. This included 400 units of life-saving calcium chloride, a medicine which is given by injection to people for crush syndrome. Haiti is in desperate need of such medicines, and each dose was a potential life saved.
The team tried to pay for extra bags or an extra seat but the airline would not allow extra bags even for a fee and all seats were sold out. Ultimately, the group re-packed all of their supplies to fit what they could and left what they could not carry behind.
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