Aid planes to Haiti circle for hours

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration halted all civilian flights to Haiti on Thursday after some flights spent hours circling while awaiting permission to land at an already crowded airport that lacked sufficient supplies for refueling.

The “ground stop” on charter flights was in effect at least until 6 p.m. EST, at which time officials would reassess the situation, said a U.S. official.

The FAA halted flights at 11:50 a.m. EST at the request of the Haitian government, which said there was no more room on ramps for planes to unload their cargo and that some planes on the ground at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport didn’t have enough fuel to leave.

Military officials said government aid flights to Haiti were resumed Thursday afternoon. Civilian aid flights that were in the air before the ground stop continued to land throughout the day, but they often had to circle the Port-au-Prince airport for as long as two hours, the official said.

Several aid flights were diverted to Santa Domingo and later sent back to the United States, according to FAA advisories.

There were 11 flights circling when the ground stop went into effect. By 4 p.m., that number was down to four flights, the official said.

Haitian officials sent FAA an advisory cautioning that the Port-au-Prince airport had 10 to 12 aircraft parked on ramps with another 20 aircraft parked on grass and surrounding areas. The airport’s control tower was destroyed in Tuesday’s earthquake.

Special tactics officers from Hurlburt Field Air Force Special Operations Command in Florida said their teams are in control of operations at the Haitian airport.

A spokesman for the command said airmen have cleared runways, established 24-hour air traffic control and have weather systems and airport lighting up and running. He said dozens of cargo planes were taking off and landing Thursday, but damage to ramps was slowing efforts to remove cargo from the planes.