By Ken Pole | December 5, 2013 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 8 seconds.
The most poignant faces of a natural disaster are, understandably, those of children – either when they die or are injured, or when their families die or are displaced.
A young Filipina in Ormoc, a city in Leyte province in the east-central Philippines, nearly lost her leg shortly after Typhoon Haiyan laid waste to much of the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. Luckily for her, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-144 Challenger happened to be in the area on Nov. 21.
“We were carrying staff from the Canadian embassy (in Manila) as well as a couple of UK military personnel and our CJOC (Canadian Joint Operations Command) liaison,” the Challenger’s command pilot, Maj Aiden Costelloe, told Canadian Skies after the crew returned to its Ottawa home base.
The Challenger’s overall mission was reconnaissance and a meeting with key personnel in Cebu City, about 110 kilometres southwest of Ormoc, on another island. “Part of the plan was to go on to Ormoc and to Tacloban, and continue with that mission they had asked us to assist with,” said Costelloe.
When the Canadians and their passengers landed in Ormoc, U.S. Air Force combat air controllers asked the Challenger crew, which was restricted to VFR operations because of limited air traffic control and nav aid capabilities, what their final destination was for the day.
“When we indicated Manila, they asked if we could accept a medevac of a 12-year-old Filipina,” the pilot recounted. “She had suffered a cut foot during the storm, and the local hospital had no more antibiotics. They were going to amputate her leg if she couldn’t be airlifted out to Manila that day.”
After meeting with USAF medics and a Philippines Army liaison officer, Costelloe asked the CJOC liaison to try to get the authorizations needed to evacuate the girl and her family.
“Within about 15 minutes, he had replies from the DART (DND’s Disaster Assistance Response Team) and the lead attaché in Manila, giving us the go-ahead. So we put them on board, picked up a flight plan when airborne and took her to Manila, where we handed her off to the reception centre for evacuees at Villamor Air Base, which is co-located with Manila International.”
Of the overall mission in the Philippines, Costelloe said, “It was extremely rewarding. The response from Filipinos and everyone else we encountered was incredible. They made us feel that Canada’s efforts were very, very much appreciated.”
