Published On | October 05, 2009
MAXIMUS AIR CARGO CARRIES UAE RELIEF TO INDONESIA
Maximus Air Cargo, the award-winning and largest UAE based air cargo solutions provider, has carried the UAE Urban Search and Rescue Team to Padang in Sumatra in response to the devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
Maximus Air Cargo operated one of the first relief flights into earthquake stricken Padang, Indonesia over the weekend. The UAE’s Urban Search and Rescue team responded to the disaster by dispatchingone of Maximus’s Ilyushin IL-76TD aircraft to Padang, shortly after the earthquake struck.
Given its suitability for relief operations into remote areas, the aircraft of choice carried 25 tons of relief aid including: a search team; some relief vehicles including a Hummer and pick-ups; trained search and rescue dogs; and approximately 18 tons of urgent relief support. A team of six travelled on the plane whilst another 55 police search and rescue experts travelled on commercial airlines meeting up with the Maximus flight on arrival in Padang. The scale of the operation makes it one of the UAE’s largest international relief aid search and rescue missions to date.
Commenting on this latest operation, Fathi Buhazza Maximus Air Cargo’s President and CEO said: “We’re incredibly keen to lend our support. Commitment to humanitarian and relief operations is high on our agenda and we are proud to carry the UAE Search and Rescue team to Padang. We have the fleet capacity and the experience required to lend logistical support to such worthy causes.
With Maximus’s successful track record in emergency relief operations and being the exclusive partner of the UAE’s Red Crescent, its other relief operations have included everything from cyclone-ravaged Burma to earthquake torn Chengdu and Pakistan.