Aussie air controllers bound for Haiti

Australian air traffic controllers will be deployed to Haiti early next week, with
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd indicating more help could be sent to the earthquake
disaster zone.
Mr Rudd said Australia had no hesitation in agreeing to the United States' request.
The prime minister left open the possibility of providing more help, on top of the
$15 million in emergency and rebuilding aid Australia has already pledged.
"As ever, Australia stands ready to provide whatever further logistical and other
humanitarian assistance is necessary for the reconstruction of that country that has
seen such enormous devastation," Mr Rudd told reporters in Brisbane at an Australia
Day presentation.
About five Royal Australian Air Force air traffic controllers would be sent to the
Caribbean nation, a spokesman for Defence Minister John Faulkner told AAP.
Australian military air traffic controllers were sent to the earthquake-ravaged
Indonesian city of Banda Aceh following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Mr Rudd said the people chosen for the Haiti mission would be working at more than
one airport.
Their deployment would ensure emergency assistance and aid was being moved
efficiently and effectively.
"Overcoming logistical obstacles is one of the keys to making sure assistance that
is being provided actually gets to the people of Haiti and making sure their airport
and airports are operating effectively," the prime minister said.
"Making Haiti's airspace and airports effective, safe and usable is crucial to the
overall humanitarian effort and we as Australians ought to make a difference in this
part of our relief effort."
There have been delays in getting aid flights into Haiti, where US forces are in
control of the main airport.
Aid flights are now also being sent to three additional airports to hasten the
movement of relief supplies for earthquake victims.
Air Force Chief Air Marshal Mark Binskin said Australian troops' experience gained
in Iraq would be put to good use in Haiti.
"Our ability to quickly mobilise this team of highly specialised air traffic
controllers at relatively short notice reflects our tactical flexibility and builds
on the experience gained from running air traffic control operations in the Middle
East at Baghdad Airport and Balad," he said in a statement.
An Australian United Nations worker was among at least 110,000 people killed after a
7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12.
Hobart-born Frederick Alan Wooldridge, 41, a dual UK-Australian citizen, was killed
while working in the capital Port-au-Prince at the time.