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U.S. heavy-lift choppers to go into service Tuesday

ROC Central News Agency

2009/08/17 21:44:11

By Sofia Wu

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) Air force sources said Monday that four U.S. heavy-lift helicopters will begin to transport heavy-duty machinery into disaster zones Tuesday to help mountainous areas in southern Taiwan dig themselves out of the rubble left by Typhoon Morakot.

Two MH-53Es and two SH-60 Seahawks are scheduled to arrive at the Tainan air base early Tuesday, where they will prepare to airlift excavators and other equipment into disaster zones cut off by landslides and flooding, said Hung Wen-cheng, a spokesman for the air base.

An MH-53E and SH-60 will first embark on trial flights to scan the flight routes shortly after their arrival, Hung said.

The four helicopters were transported by the USS Denver, an amphibious transport dock ship, to waters near Taiwan from a U.S. naval base in Okinawa, Japan, Monday.

An MH-53E helicopter flew from the dock ship to the Tainan air base later that day. It was originally scheduled to embark on a trial flight to a disaster zone Monday afternoon, but was forced to abort the plan because of poor weather, Hung said.

The chopper returned to the dock ship and will fly to Taiwan Tuesday morning along with the three other helicopters, according to military sources.

It was just the second time that U.S. military aircraft had landed in Taiwan since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.

The first time was to help with relief operations following an earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999 that killed over 2,400 people.

U.S. authorities reportedly want to keep a low profile in providing assistance to Taiwan's post-disaster relief operations in consideration of the sensitivity of Taiwan-U.S.-China ties.

Typhoon Morakot dumped staggering amounts of rainfall in Taiwan Aug. 7-9, swelling rivers that washed away bridges and triggering landslides that buried entire villages. Villages nestled in mountainous parts of the southern counties of Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Chiayi were pounded especially hard by the storm.

Taiwan desperately needs helicopters capable of transporting heavy-duty machinery or equipment to these hard-hit areas that are not currently accessible by roads, The United States agreed to provide U.S. personnel-operated heavy-lift helicopters and other materials to meet Taiwan's desperate need to get heavy-duty machinery into these areas cut off from the outside world to facilitate post-disaster recovery, Hung said.

"The U.S. heavy-duty choppers will airlift five excavators to disaster zones Tuesday, " Hung said, but he was unable to identify the exact destinations.

It was reported previously that the U.S. will dispatch CH-53E choppers to assist Taiwan in its disaster relief efforts, but Hung said the MH models were upgraded versions of the CH models.

On Monday, a U.S. C-130 transport plane also airlifted about half a ton of calcium hypochlorite tablets for water sanitization to help ward off water-borne diseases in disaster zones. The delivery followed a similar mission Sunday when a C-130 delivered over 15,000 pounds of plastic tarpaulin that can be used to build temporary shelters during the reconstruction process.