As the humanitarian crisis continues following devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, South Florida’s aviation community is stepping up to help.
The death toll rose to 1,430, Venezuelan officials said.
But while volunteers are standing by, organizers said getting those flights into the country has become another challenge.
Volunteers on Saturday have been working around the clock organizing boxes of donated supplies.
NBC6 cameras captured hundreds of boxes ready to be loaded onto a plane just outside a hangar.
Organizers said one humanitarian flight took off Saturday morning, but additional flights are now on hold while they wait for authorization from the Venezuelan government.
A private humanitarian flight to Venezuela is ready for takeoff, and inside the plane are donations.
Everything from food and water to baby essentials and pet food.
But organizers said first aid and rescue equipment remain among the most urgently needed items.
“Especially medicines is what we feel that is most needed,” said Ignacio Martinez, director of W Aviation. “Tooling for, you know, remove gravels are also needed down in Venezuela. So we’re trying to make sure that we take the necessary equipment that people are really looking for.”
Organizers told NBC6 that the community responded almost immediately.
“We started receiving packages and donations yesterday at 8 o’clock in the morning,” said Hugo Cortes, General Manager of W Aviation. “We worked very heavy until 1 o’clock in the morning to get it ready.”
The supplies are being flown on private planes, but organizers said getting as much aid as possible into each flight comes with challenges.
“These airplanes are made only for private,” Cortez said. “They’re limited on seats. We cannot remove the seats. We actually have to put the cargo items on top of the seats, so they’re very limited on weight. We also have the weight of balance on the aircraft.”
But that hasn’t stopped members of South Florida’s Venezuelan community from showing up with whatever they can.
“We are Venezuelans,” Rodrigo Escobar said. “We are very united. That’s what we are as a people. And like I said, this is the thing that we can do. And it’s devastating. It’s really devastating.”
And they said this effort is far from over.
“We hope that we’re going to keep doing this as the government in Venezuela and the community allows,” Martinez said.
They’re hoping to continue these humanitarian flights for the next month or so, but said additional departures now depend on receiving authorization from the Venezuelan government.