Amway flying docs, supplies to Haiti

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Dozens of supply boxes containing sterile gloves and other emergency medical supplies sit inside the Amway Corporation hangar at Gerald R. Ford International Airport waiting for a flight to Haiti.

West Michigan medical professionals are expected to join them.

The flight was planned for Wednesday -- after ones like it Monday and Tuesday.

"We had nurses, doctors, surgeons, physician's assistants -- you name it," Amway Chief Pilot Patrick Rollins told 24 Hour News 8. "They're lining up to come down there and they need them all down there, from what we can understand."

But Tuesday evening, an Amway spokesman told 24 Hour News 8 the corporation could not get a reservation to land. Amway hopes to fly again Thursday and Friday.

The boxes bound for Haiti include Amway products along with the medical supplies put together by International Aid. Vaccines, such as the one for tetanus, are included in the mix, Rollins said.

The chief pilot has spoken with the man making the trips to Haiti, aviation director Rick Fiddler.

"He said there's a lot of people on the fences, on the periphery. You can see them out there," Rollins said.

Fiddler has told Rollins he can see a lot of rubble from the ground. But given the poverty people in Haiti experience, it's hard to know just how much devastation they already were dealing with.

The Amway flights received FAA approval to land Saturday after applying Friday, Rollins said. Priority, of course, goes to planes that, like the Ada-based company's, contain medicine, medical supplies and medical professionals.

The Gulfstream jets can make the round trip without stopping for fuel. And once they get there, Rollins said they spend just about 45 minutes on the ground.

"The priority is to get the airplanes down there off loaded as quickly as they can because they literally have airplanes in line to get down there," Rollins said. "It's a challenge. We'll look back down the road and be very proud that we did this operation. Right now, we're really in the mode of just getting it done and getting it done safely and getting it done correctly."