News and Missions

The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford was scheduled for the 12th and 13th of July, but it was not to be. In the days before the event the rains fell heavily in Gloucestershire, flooding the car parks and the viewing areas at Fairford, and the air show was cancelled. AWB had been kindly offered passes by EADS to invite guests to their hospitality chalet on Sunday 13th and, by good fortune for all, the decision was taken to proceed with the hospitality programme as it formed an important part of RIAT. Fortunately the hospitality car park was concrete, rather than the grass of the public car parks, and the hospitality area was dry.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day although the problems caused by the rain were evident and grass areas were sodden. Our guests were three children, with parents, from Reach, an organisation whose children had also been AWB’s guests at our Smiling Wings days in Perth and Fairoaks, and five children from the African Children’s Choir, who are on tour in the UK. The children from the choir are from an orphanage in Nkomazi in the NW of South Africa and have mostly lost their parents to AIDS. They were accompanied by Angie, a charming young American lady from Oregon, who had given up a high-flying career managing bands in the music business to be a ‘Mum’ with the African Children’s Choir.

The Gloucester town of Tewkesbury had been a victim last summer of some of the worst flooding in decades and many had been badly affected by the floods and were still suffering. One family of five from Tewkesbury, who had had a particularly hard time, were invited with the then mayor, Phil Awford, and his wife, but the thought of more heavy rain and more floods were too much for the family and, on the day, they decided not to attend.

The EADS chalet at RIAT was elegant and stylish, with its own viewing area, and was a very pleasant venue for the day. The guests were welcomed by Bettina Nerb and Nathalie Poetzsch of EADS Corporate Brand Communications and were invited to enjoy the facilities. With not too many people in the hospitality area there was sufficient room in the chalet and the viewing area to move about with ease.

The same was true outside in the static aircraft display and the show was not crowded. As everyone there was a 'special' guest, the atmosphere was very relaxed. There were no problems crossing the rope barriers and going right up to the aircraft and the crews were happy to invite visitors on board.

A delicious buffet lunch was served at 1230 and, in the afternoon sunshine, the small crowd was able to view some aircraft movements. A WWII Hurricane fighter and a Lancaster bomber were seen departing, followed later by a formation take-off of the Red Arrows. To everyone’s delight the Red Arrows returned later and put on a short display before peeling off to land back at Fairford.

RIAT, in spite of the weather problems, was a great day out and everyone had a good time. The weather was wonderful, lots of aircraft were viewed and some flying was seen. As a thank you to EADS, the children of the choir sang two songs in the chalet for the EADS guests, amongst whom was the wife of the South African Air Chief who warmly thanked the children for their impromptu performance.

At the end of the day Bettina and Nathalie presented the children with posters and other items and AWB presented ‘pilot’ teddy bears and aviation ‘remove before flight’ key tags. On leaving, all at EADS were thanked for their generosity and the chalet staff were thanked for their kind attention.

Aviation Without Borders (AWB) hosted its second ‘Introduction to Aviation Day’ of the year at Fairoaks Aerodrome, near London, on Saturday 17th May. The day is named, for obvious reasons, Smiling wings day, and was supported by EADS and Synergy Aviation of Fairoaks.

Smiling Wings days introduce disadvantaged or disabled youngsters to General Aviation and to the wonder of flight in the hope that it may expand their horizons.

The day at Fairoaks began on Saturday morning when our guests from the charity Reach, eleven children and nine adults, arrived at 1030. The first group went flying straight away and was airborne by 1100. With the cloud base at 1,200 feet and the rain staying away the passengers were able to have a comfortable ride and to enjoy the views. The next group went flying on their return and, with the arrival of more pilots, the others soon followed. By 1pm all had managed to have an enjoyable flight.
After the flying, our guests were invited to visit the nearby Brooklands Air Museum.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and, amongst the children and parents, and the pilots too, there were many smiles. The support from the Synergy Aviation pilots, Jos Rankin, Peter Money and Graham Ball, was much appreciated and the event was rewarding for all concerned.

On 27 December 2007, Alberto Miguel Domínguez, a volunteer for ASF Spain, accompanied Doudou Abdourahmane on his flight from Coruña to Madrid and onwards to Paris. From the French capital, a volunteer from ASF France escorted the boy back to his hometown Nouakchott in Mauritania. The two year old Doudou desperately needed a heart operation in Spain. Now that Doudou has recovered he is able to join his family back home again.

Airbus has teamed up with ASF France to offer this event called ‘le vol du sourire’ (Wings of Smile). On 18 December 2007, fifty disabled children from the Midi-Pyrénées region had the opportunity to fly on an A321. The one hour flight was the first ever for all of them.
The airport Toulouse-Blagnac also supported the event by facilitating the access to the terminal and the boarding of the aircraft for the children.

The children came from several special needs facilities in the Toulouse region that are regularly supported by ASF France and especially from an institutaion run by the Apeihsat. Apeihsat is an association of employees of Airbus Toulouse with disabled or handicapped children and is supported by the social branch of the Airbus France works council.

Of course, the kids were not left alone on their first flight. Each of them was accompanied by either a health specialist or a member of the family. And to make the day even more memorable, everybody received a model of an Airbus A321 and a certificate commemorating their first flight.

On Friday, 7th December 2007 children from the Shooting Star and Chase Hospices, and the White Lodge Centre, were welcomed by AWB at the Fairoaks airfield. EADS and Synergy Aviation of Fairoaks proudly supported the “Smiling Wings” Day and the Mann Aviation Group of Fairoaks was kindly providing a guided tour of the hangars. The aviation magazine Flight International generously presented a cheque for future events and gifts for the children were provided by Air France/KLM Sky Team and Transair. Although the flights nearly all had to be cancelled due to strong winds, lots of smiles of happy children could be witnessed during the event.

AWB was first registered as a charity on 19th December 2006 in England and Wales and in October 2007 also in Scotland, becoming one of a minority of charities registered throughout the UK. Their first year’s mission was to complete three of their stated activities, namely: escorting of sick children to the UK for medical treatment, transporting of supplies by air cargo to areas in need and “Smiling Wings” Days.

AWB has so far escorted children from Ethiopia and Kenya for life saving heart operations in London and have transported by air cargo supplies to areas of the world as diverse as Tewkesbury (UK), with bottled water during the floods, and Peru, with relief supplies after the earthquake. By hosting the “Smiling Wings” Day, AWB have achieved all their goals within their first year of existance.

Cyclone “SIDR” rampaged across the south-western region of Bangladesh at a wind speed of around 250 km/h on 15 November. It killed several thousand people and destroyed 70 % of all the houses. Millions of inhabitants in the disaster area have no roof, around 2.5 million children have been directly affected by the consequences.

After the call for help made by the Ambassador of Bangladesh, Manjoor Rahim, who emphasized the desperate plight of children in particular following the massive natural catastrophe, Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. decided to send aid transport to the devastated country as fast as possible.

In just one day, the aid organization was able to provide around 150 tonnes of high-quality baby and children’s food, including 100 tonnes of children’s prepared food. The 1,000,000 portions for babies and small children are capable of safeguarding the survival of 10,000 children for a period of three months. The consignment also includes 72 europallets of biscuits and dried pastries, and 1,000 blankets. The total value of the aid delivery amounts to some 500,000.00 euros.

Staff from Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. will hand over the bulk consignment - also made possible by EADS - on the ground and ensure effective distribution to the people affected by the disaster.

Altogether three tonnes of medical beds, wheelchairs, medicines and school supplies were transported when the company made available an ATR 72-500 aircraft which had to carry out flight tests in Africa. ASF had been waiting for three months for an aircraft to become available, in order to organise a delivery of equipment to Gao, in the south of Mali.
Stéphane Mayer, the Executive Chairman of ATR, was present while the aircraft was being loaded and told us that these operations with ASF were “routine when we deliver aircraft, if the company buying the plane is in agreement, and when we carry out flight tests under special conditions, which is the case here”.

The members of the ASF team stayed in Mali until Sunday, 9 September, to make sure that the goods were distributed properly.
ATR and ASF have already teamed up before for operations of the same kind in Niger and Mauritania, as well as in Sri Lanka when it was hit by the tsunami. ATR wants to continue developing these partnerships, as Stéphane Mayer assured us: “I’m all for drawing attention to this type of action every time. We want to combine business with business. It’s good to be able to make use of our passion to help other causes”.

On the marketplace in Lunahuana hundreds of people are standing in long lines waiting for the relief aid that the organization Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. (LOG) and Aviation without Borders (AWB) have brought to the small mountain village. It is the first international relief transport to reach Lunahuana which, before the earthquake struck on 15 August 2007, was a charming leisure destination in Peru. Now around 80% of the houses lie in ruins.

LOG and AWB have driven to Lunahuana together with German Embassy employees. “This is an area that has so far received little aid,” says Dieter Lamlè of the German Embassy in Lima. Pisco, which has been in the media spotlight worldwide, is receiving the bulk of the international aid.

The helpers on site bring mothers carrying young children and the very old to the front. An old, blind woman standing at the back is guided to the front by an aid worker. She keeps murmuring her thanks and tells how she has lost her house together with all her belongings and has nowhere to go now.

The two relief organizations have shuttled more than 50 tons of relief aid into the country, of which 23 tons is baby food that will ensure the survival of 3000 babies for four months. On board the cargo jumbo were also warm blankets, food, high-quality medicines, clothing and drinking water. Water remains in short supply and is being transported to the population in tanker trucks.

The beautiful church in the village is scarred by cracks and fissures. “It’s the fourth major earthquake the church has withstood,” says the mayor of Lunahuana, who has asked the aid workers to convey the residents’ heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the transport possible.

In cooperation with their English sister organization “Aviation without Borders,” on Friday, 27 July 2007, the German aid organization “Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V.” handed over roughly 50,000 litres of drinking water to the population of Tewkesbury/Gloucestershire, UK, which had been severely hit by floods. For days now, the people in the flood region have been struggling with huge shortages in drinking water. Although the water supply is, in the meantime, just about up and running again, the water is still not suitable for drinking. This means that about 350,000 households have to be supplied with water.

The local authorities do not expect the situation to improve in the next 5 days and, what’s more, further heavy rainfall is expected. When the two 40-tonne articulated lorries reached Tewkesbury, there was not a lot to be seen of the proverbial English composure. His voice laden with emotion, the Mayor of Tewkesbury Phil Awford said: “Nobody could ever know what it means when, in such a dire emergency, international help suddenly comes.”

Although there have been floods for over a week, up until then no international aid had arrived in the town. This meant that the delivery of relief supplies was covered with a great deal of attention by the English media. The English television stations BBC and ITN, radio stations and several newspapers reported at length on the situation.

The aid was despatched within just 24 hours. "Aviation without Borders" and "Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V." will follow the local developments and if necessary send a further consignment.

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