News and Missions

On Friday, 4th of September the 4000th Airbus of the A320 family was delivered to the largest airline in South America, the Brazilian carrier TAM, which already operates 127 Airbus aircraft. The delivery flight from Hamburg Finkenwerder to Sao Paulo was used for a good cause.

Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. loaded the aircraft with approximately three tons of gifts for the Centro de Reabilitaçao "Lar Escola
Sao Francisco" in Sao Paulo - a special institution that teaches
and provides for children with various disabilities.

Upon delivery of the new airplane in Hamburg, Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders said: "I'm proud that the Airbus Foundation, together with our customer TAM, could support this important cause."
Maria Claudia Oliveira Amaro, Chairman of the Board of Directors TAM, thanked everyone saying: "It's nice to feel this international friendship. We look forward to continuing working with Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen and Airbus. 'Obrigada', in our country it means 'thank you'!"
Also Flavia Varga, a senior staff member at the school said: "We are very happy that our organization has received such high international recognition. We are very grateful to LOG and Airbus, as well as to our friends at TAM Airline, who have supported us since 2004."

In the south of Taiwan the death toll was rising fast after several landslides, caused by the massive tropical storm “Moracot”, buried entire villages under tons of debris. Even days after the storm, the hazard to thousands of victims in the disaster area, who barely survived the typhoon, is still present. Many villages are still cut off from the outside world after the destruction of roads, bridges, telephone lines and power lines. The search for survivors goes on in those places. The people of Taiwan, who are struck by this catastrophe, need help desperately.

The humanitarian organization “Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V.”, also supported by EADS, sent off a transport with relief goods on Monday, August 17th at 11.20 am. The goods, which include tents, sleeping bags and blankets, were transported to Taiwan with a China Airlines A340. LOG plans to continue its efforts to support the victims of the typhoon throughout the next weeks.

It is with great pleasure that EADS welcomes Luchtvaart Zonder Grenzen (LZG) in the EADS-ASF Partnership. The support for LZG is co-sponsored by Dutch Space, an EADS Astrium company who operates as a subsidiary within Astrium Satellites' Business Division Subsystems and Equipments since July 2006.

The Dutch organization of ASF provides humanitarian aerial services in remote areas of Africa. LZG uses its knowledge and resources in aviation to, among others, bring medical support, distribute some supplies or to escort sick children.

By including the Dutch branch of ASF, EADS now really supports the ASF organizations in all its home countries.

Up on the mountains of Haiti, a small group of six children slowly moved through the dusty streets. They already had a long journey behind them, and it wasn’t over yet. James the leader, at the age of 13 was the oldest of them. At first they were only five, but then the two and a half year old Darlene trotted behind to join them. Yesterday, they found Darlene sitting on a mountain of garbage. Starving, dirty, desperate and crying; she had no one, so they just took her. At first, the ten-year-old Judson was against this idea because they themselves already had nothing to eat. The children, all from Gonaive, lost their parents and relatives in the last disastrous storm and flood that accompanied. While aimlessly walking through a small village, they met Anne-Rose. She was on the street side cooking lunch for some factory workers outside Port-au-Prince, and when she saw them, she gave them a little something to eat. Actually, it would have been only enough to feed one of them. However, at least it was much better than the sun dried earth patties – a mixture of sand, oil and salt that always gives one such terrible stomach pains.

Once, Haiti was a tropical paradise. But now, it is known as the poorest place in Latin America. Haiti’s farmers can only still about half the hunger of their own people. The island is dependent on food imports. Once a flourishing paradise has now become the poorest country in the western hemisphere. In Gonaive, James had many chores. He would have to walk around many hours to find firewood, get water from the village well, and tend to his younger siblings. There was just no time for school. Besides, his parents didn’t have the money to buy his school uniforms and books.

The children were still on their way. From time to time, someone would give them addresses of orphanages, and they would go there and knock on those doors. However, they were refused every time. They were either rudely chased away, or just given another address.

Somewhere along the way, a man on a horse wagon bringing vegetables to the city took them along for a while. Now, they walked through the streets of the large city of Port-au-Prince, still searching for a place to stay. In the meanwhile, two of the younger children had gotten sick. They had high fever, diarrhea and were getting weaker by the hour. James would keep asking people in the streets, but they were chasing after their own problems, and had no time to stop. It had already gotten dark as James again asked a passerby. The man recommended that he go ask a small orphanage a few streets away. Quickly, he led the others in that direction, and finally, the small group stood in front of Esther, a strong and tireless woman that runs the orphanage in Carrefour. Every morning she worries about what to feed the orphans because there are just too many. Adding to this disarray and suffering, cyclone Ike also destroyed a part of the orphanage. Esther never thought too long about who would feed 35 children, and so she knew that she would also find a way and somehow feed 41 small hungry mouths now as well. When they entered the modest house, Esther lit a candle. They all held hands and James had to think about Christmas – the Feast that was always so nice at home! And this is how November 8th 2008, turned out to be Christmas Eve for six small orphans from Haiti. They had finally found shelter.

EADS supported the LOG mission in Haiti.

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.

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