The multitude of problems and frustrations surrounding the earthquake relief effort in Haiti is played out at the country's largest airport in Port-au-Prince.
Thousands of sick and desperate Haitians are waiting for a flight out. Meanwhile, supplies and aid workers have difficulty getting in, says Rebecca Gustafson, with the DART, the State Department's first-response team for disasters.
"Everyone wants to give, everyone wants to be a part of this operation, and the biggest thing that I can tell people is it is very difficult right now to get into the airport," she says. "It's difficult not only to get into the airport but to move things out of the airport."
The airport in Port-au-Prince is arguably the weak link in the massive relief effort gathering steam. Over the past few days, medical workers, drugs, search-and-rescue teams, and communications specialists have had problems getting in to this tiny airport.
Col. Greg Kane, director of operations for the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne Corps, says planes have been stacked several layers high all the way to Miami. He says the airport just doesn't have the capacity for this type of operation.
"As you can see, there's one taxiway, one runway, and any aircraft that comes in, [if] it takes a long time to download or requires fuel, will take up a parking space, which will prevent another aircraft from landing," Kane says.
There are only about a dozen parking spaces on the runway, Kane says, but that doesn't mean there should be logjams like this.
Kane was in Haiti in 1994 for Operation Restore Democracy. Then, he says, aircraft landed and took off every three to five minutes for an air bridge that lasted 72 to 96 hours.
Still, Kane says he sees the pace is picking up slowly.
One of the key problems is the airport's control tower: Its radar and communications systems were damaged in the earthquake.
The other factor, military officials quietly say, is that local authorities aren't up to the size or the pace of this operation. On Friday, the U.S. military — in agreement with the Haitian government — took control of the airport operations.
It's a basic setup. U.S. Air Force Maj. Mathew Jones enters a small military trailer sitting on a grass field next to the airport runway. He says all the logistics for air operations will now be run from this tiny room.
"Obviously, there's nothing to plug into. It's all run from satellite communications and generators for the electricity, which brings its own challenge," Jones says.
But Jones says the U.S. control center has the technology and the software to more easily coordinate the increasing number of planes, people and supplies coming into Haiti.
The priority, he says, is still getting in search-and-rescue teams, medical workers and supplies. After that, Jones says, comes a wave of food, water and tents — expected at a much faster pace than the past few days.
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