HAITI : Impassable roads, a damaged airport, an unreachable dock and not enough equipment to unload relief supplies continued to keep most of the world's help Friday from devastated Haitians.
International businesses and relief agencies struggled to get aid into the battered country via the bottlenecked airport in Port-au-Prince three days after Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake.
British Airways offered aid agencies a relief aircraft to fly more emergency supplies and equipment. The plane that can hold 50 tons of supplies will be ready to fly to Haiti on Saturday, the airline said. A volunteer British Airways crew will man the plane, and the company also pledged close to $900,000 in fuel and money for supplies.
The British firm joins agencies from all over the globe that are heading to Haiti or who are already there.
The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is expected to arrive Friday, carrying 19 helicopters and 30 pallets of relief goods.
Belize, Brazil, China, Chile, Spain, Canada, Israel, Iceland, Ireland, the United States and Morocco were among the many countries offering aid.
But Friday morning, aid agencies were still struggling to get relief items from the airport, said Dave Toycen, a relief worker with the aid agency World Vision.
"The issue is obviously logistics. It is problematic to get the streets clear," Toycen said. "There was a milelong line to get gasoline. We are short the basics."
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