Jaunted

As one of the first reporters on the ground in Haiti, CNN's Anderson Cooper was dutifully communicating via phone even as people rolled wheelbarrows down the street, with injured family members inside. He arrived to the epicenter in Port-Au-Prince via a helicopter from Santo Domingo's Airport in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Here's what he had to say to CNN about the condition of Port-Au-Prince airport, after arriving:

The control tower is basically out. It's there, it's physically standing, but it's not – I’m told it's not operational.

I spoke to two pilots who just came in on fixed wing aircraft and they said there was somebody on a radio somewhere in the airport who is trying to help kind of coordinate the landing of planes. But it is - it's literally just somebody on a radio and no one is sure where that person is. So it's very much up to the pilots to try to coordinate amongst themselves and using visual flight rules to kind of just look for what aircraft is around them.

So in terms of bringing in large-scale aircraft, that has not been happening yet. I talked to one official from the U.N. who's trying to coordinate things at the airport in Santo Domingo and they're hoping to bring in some sort of radar equipment or some sort of control tower sort of equipment that they can then take over the coordination. But at this point that has not happened.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Haiti and the families of those who cannot get information about their loved ones. If you want more such reports, the Twitter list to follow is CNN's "Boots-On-Ground" list.

Related Stories:
· Anderson on the ground in Haiti [AC360]
· 7.0 Earthquake Strikes Haiti, Photos Beginning to Trickle In [Jaunted]
· Tragedies coverage [Jaunted]

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