{"id":13842,"date":"2019-09-21T20:54:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T20:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=13842"},"modified":"2019-09-21T20:58:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T20:58:21","slug":"dieter-morszeck-foundation-flying-to-bahamas-to-aid-hurricane-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/florida\/dieter-morszeck-foundation-flying-to-bahamas-to-aid-hurricane-victims\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Dieter Morszeck Foundation Flying to Bahamas to Aid Hurricane Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The German based Dieter Morszeck Foundation is providing aid\nto the victims of hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas by flying rescue and relief\nmissions out of Florida. Three of their aircraft are airlifting injured and\nsick persons from the areas ravaged by the hurricane, and bringing in medical\npersonnel, drinking water and food to the northern islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13843\" width=\"289\" height=\"386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Three airplanes of the Dieter Morszeck Foundation have been\nflying these missions to the Bahamas for more than a week. They set off from\nFort Lauderdale in Florida to the hard-hit northeast of the Bahamas, laden with\nfood, water and other emergency supplies for the Bahamian people affected by\nthe category 5 hurricane. So far, over 120 sick or injured individuals have\nbeen flown from the ravaged islands to the capital Nassau or to Florida, where\nthey are receiving medical treatment. Over 40 tons of water, food and other\nsupplies have been brought in to the remote islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The foundation&#8217;s light, single-engine airplanes are equipped\nwith amphibious floats and can take off and land on water or concrete runways.\nThe Quest Aircraft Kodiak 100, Pilatus PC-6, and Cessna 206 aircraft can carry\nup to eight passengers or one ton of freight. They also allow for sick or\ninjured patients to be transported lying down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They had originally been purchased by the Dieter Morszeck\nFoundation to provide medical support to the indigenous people of the Amazon. \u201cWe\nare saving people who have been injured by hurricane Dorian or who have fallen\nseriously ill,\u201d says pilot Sven Lepschy, originally from Germany, who has made\nWest Palm Beach, FL his home and who initiated the relief and rescue missions\nof the Dieter Morszeck Foundation. Mr. Lepschy is also the CEO of WACO\nAircraft, a manufacturer of open cockpit sport biplanes and located in Battle\nCreek, MI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-3-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13845\" width=\"336\" height=\"252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-3-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-3.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur small airplanes can reach even the outermost islands in\nthe northeastern corner of the Bahamas. Many people there have lost everything.\nTheir houses are destroyed, and they are currently living under dreadful\nsanitary conditions,\u201d says Mr. Lepschy. The foundation&#8217;s amphibious planes,\nable to land on water and short runways, can airlift people in distress on the\nbeaches or off boats on the waters along the remote islands. \u201cThe missions are\nvery challenging. With the floats, we can land on water, but the storm has left\na lot of wood and wreckage in the sea,\u201d says C\u00e9dric Gitschenko, another of the\nfoundation\u2019s pilots. The Swiss aviation professional lives part-time on the\nBahamas and has been flying rescue missions non-stop since Thursday. The tours,\nhe adds, take an emotional toll, too. \u201cMy heart bleeds when I see the\ndestruction the hurricane brought. Thanks to the Dieter Morszeck Foundation,\nthough, and many donations and volunteers from Florida, we can help alleviate\nthe suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dieter Morszeck Foundation carries out its rescue\nmissions in cooperation with Florida Seaplanes, an Orlando-based flight school,\nand Gold Aviation of Fort Lauderdale. David Hensch is the third pilot alongside\nSven and C\u00e9dric; Sven&#8217;s wife Nathalie, a Swiss native and former flight\nattendant, takes care of the patients in the cabin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dieter Morszeck Foundation was established by the German\nindustrialist from Cologne, Dieter Morszeck, in 2016. The foundation was set up\nto finance and operate flight rescue missions, conduct medical research,\nprovide medical assistance and supplies, further education, and foster children\nand young adults living in poverty. In Brazil, the organization is setting up a\nmission to provide medical services for the indigenous people of the Amazon\nwith &#8216;flying doctors&#8217;. To that end, it has bought several amphibious airplanes\nequipped for medical transportation. They are currently deployed on a relief\nand rescue mission on the Bahamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The German based Dieter Morszeck Foundation is providing aid to the victims of hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas by flying rescue and relief missions out of Florida. Three of their aircraft are airlifting injured and sick persons from the areas ravaged by the hurricane, and bringing in medical personnel, drinking water and food to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,30,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-florida","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bahamas-2-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13846,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions\/13846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}