Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, head of Joint Task Force Haiti, told bloggers Monday there has been only one way to get supplies, equipment, and people into earthquake-devastated Haiti, the international airport, which routinely hosted only 13 flights per day. Now, said Keen, thanks to “the best airmen in the world” who quickly got the airfield operating again and with turnover of airfield management to USAF airmen, the flow has been fairly constant at 100 aircraft or so a day. He noted that some delayed and turned away flights, like one international flight delivering a portable hospital, have generated bad news, but he said many US flights also were turned away, in many cases because an aircraft on the ground had mechanical problems. On Jan. 18, Keen said 180 flights went through with no delays. Still, he advocated getting ports reopened quickly to “take pressure off the airport.” (Transcript)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…