Of the military aircrafts took off on Thursday from Australia Y New Zealand with the first shipments of humanitarian aid to Tonga, impacted on Saturday by a powerful volcanic eruption followed by a devastating tsunami.
Responsible in Australia Y New Zealand confirmed that the takeoff of two cargo ships due to land in the next few hours at Tonga’s airport, recently cleared of volcanic ash.
A ‘C17 Globemaster took off from the amberley air base around 07:00 today (20:00 GMT on Wednesday), an Australian defense official told AFP. Another Australian flight is scheduled for this Thursday.
New Zealand confirmed that a Hercules C-130 was also on the way, after several days of delays.
The flights are loaded with humanitarian supplies and communications equipment for the Pacific archipelago, almost cut off from the world after the eruption and tsunami, which damaged an international undersea telecommunications cable.
Due to this event, the news from the country has been very limited since Saturday and the balance of damage is imprecise.
Work in recent days has focused on clearing the runway of the international airport to allow planes carrying humanitarian aid to land.
Australia said a military supply ship is ready to sail in Brisbane and it is expected to do so by Friday.
The ship HMAS Adelaide is carrying “water purification equipment and additional humanitarian supplies”, the prime minister said Scott Morrison on Wednesday.
