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brooklynite

(94,594 posts) Mon Apr 27, 2015, 02:53 PM Apr 2015

‘Nobody’ in Nepal Airport’s Tower

Source: The Daily Beast

An Associated Press reporter who landed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal said his flight’s captain reported that nobody is in the control tower. “That meant we could taxi no farther, and we were trapped on the tarmac,” Todd Pitman writes. That chaos has congested the country’s main airport to the point that relief flights from India were turned away temporarily. At least 4,000 are dead and 30,000 homeless after Saturday’s earthquake devastated the country. Aftershocks are still being felt. “We are appealing for tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses, and 80 different medicines... that we desperately need now,” said rescue coordinator Lila Mani Poudyal. “We don’t have the helicopters that we need or the expertise to rescue the people trapped.”

4 replies

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‘Nobody’ in Nepal Airport’s Tower (Original Post) brooklynite Apr 2015 OP

How are they supposed to get in the supplies if nobody is in the tower? dhol82 Apr 2015 #1

I get the impression the Government may have functionally collapsed. brooklynite Apr 2015 #2

It sounds like they need air traffic controllers marym625 Apr 2015 #3

That was yesterday muriel_volestrangler Apr 2015 #4

dhol82

(9,353 posts)

1. How are they supposed to get in the supplies if nobody is in the tower?

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Mon Apr 27, 2015, 02:58 PM

Apr 2015

This is really awful. Wonder if they have electricity available at the airport?

brooklynite

(94,594 posts)

2. I get the impression the Government may have functionally collapsed.

Reply to dhol82 (Reply #1)

Mon Apr 27, 2015, 03:05 PM

Apr 2015

...or lost it's own ability to communicate.

marym625

(17,997 posts)

3. It sounds like they need air traffic controllers

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Mon Apr 27, 2015, 03:08 PM

Apr 2015

How absolutely devastating. If I had any money at all, I would go there and do whatever I could to help

muriel_volestrangler

(101,321 posts)

4. That was yesterday

Reply to brooklynite (Original post)

Mon Apr 27, 2015, 04:05 PM

Apr 2015

It coems from this AP report:

Quake agony revealed quietly on trip from Nepal airport
By TODD PITMAN
Apr. 26, 2015 11:58 AM EDT

Soon after landing at Kathmandu airport, the Thai Airways captain made a bizarre announcement to passengers: Nobody is in the control tower.

That meant we could taxi no farther, and we were trapped on the tarmac. It took the pilot another half-hour to explain that air-traffic controller had left the tower because there had been an aftershock, one of several that has struck fear into this mountainous nation since Saturday's massive tremor killed more than 2,500 people.

Those moments and many others in my first hours in Nepal's capital revealed that while much of Kathmandu appears to have been spared physical damage from the earthquake, other signs of trauma are everywhere.
...

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:03ccc04ae3424f3da7bedc72b7ab88cb

Going by more recent reports, the airport is working now, if not perfectly, eg

A CNN team at Kathmandu’s main airport on Monday saw large numbers of cargo planes on the tarmac, but also witnessed chaotic scenes as officials struggled to cope with the influx of aid and the large numbers of people trying get out of the country.

The airport was also facing some of the shortages afflicting the disaster-hit nation.

“Even at the airport in Kathmandu, there is no drinking water or food or other provisions available, so one can imagine what might be happening in other parts of the country,” said Tak of Save the Children.

http://gantdaily.com/2015/04/27/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-nears-4000/

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