Satellite phone works!

She called, plane did land and they are on the tarmac just standing around for now waiting to find out what is next.  She said United was AWESOME in the way they were treated and how the flight was handled.  She'll try to check in later.

UA 9022 is in transit, next stop Haiti!

Photo 1 - United Check-in @ ORD

Had a brief conversation with Chris late last night, the were headed to the airport after some R&R at the hotel.  Flight departure information was still a little sketchy at that time.  United Airlines flight 9022 is in the air now, headed for Haiti and can be tracked via Flight Tracker (click here for tracking), scheduled arrival is 11 AM EST.  When Chris has a spare moment she will try the satellite phone and check in but I imagine she will be busy upon arrival!  She will not be able to update this directly as she has been, so I will post updates for now as I get them.

More photos from Tricia!

Photo 2 - In the check-in line

Tricia has been great about sending photos via her iPhone and she took a few photos while they were checking in at Chicago (ORD) for this flight.  United has an area setup for all the relief workers there and has a grand welcoming on all their displays (photo 1) for the relief workers and it looks they are making it easy for them to check-in.  She also captured a couple of photos of the team in the check-in line as well as a crew of Water Filtration Specialists that are en-route with them on this flight it seems (photo 4).

Photo 3 - Checkin-in line
 

Photo 4 - Water Treatment Team

The final picture that Tricia sent before departure shows ChrisP and Chris (as my Chris is known by the crew, since Chris Gonzales started in the Kaiser Emergency Department before Chris did, he added the P for Pauley and now they call here "cripsy") getting ready for take-off in FIRST CLASS! Not sure how that happened but I'm guessing everyone was happy getting that treatment!

More to come as soon as I hear details. 

Photo 5 - First Class!

United Airlines flight 9902

An article printed on January 19th in the Chicago Tribune (Chicago is United's home base - click here for the article) discusses flight 9902 (a 757), which is a flight setup specifically for relief efforts.  At the time they were planning 30 flights to deliver much needed aid to Haiti.  This is the flight the team is heading out on.  Since it is a special flight, I don't think it can be tracked in the normal ways.  I'll get a call from Chris tonight before they board (or early morning, depends on when things go) and will try to post the details that they know.  Looks to be about a 5 hour flight.