Direct Relief International Sends $1 Million Shipment for Victims of India Quake. Flight is memorial for airline founder killed in crash

Direct Relief International
Wednesday, 31 January 2001

SANTA BARBARA, CA (January 31, 2001) — Direct Relief International has airlifted its largest shipment yet of aid for victims of the earthquake in India—more than 13 tons of medical supplies worth well over $1 million. The emergency shipment was made possible as a tribute to an immigrant from Pakistan who rose from poverty to found the world's third-largest cargo airline.

Direct Relief, working in partnership with Los-Angeles based relief agency Operation USA, was offered the use of a Boeing 747 cargo jet by Atlas Air, Inc. The flight, which left LAX for New Delhi at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, January 31, was in memory of the freight airline's founder and CEO Michael A. Chowdry, who died on January 24 when the private plane he was flying crashed near Denver, Colorado.

Direct Relief has a long history of medical assistance to India, sending aid shipments there since 1959. In the past six years, Direct Relief has sent more than 150 shipments of medical supplies and equipment to India, valued at over $8 million. Previous natural disasters in India to which Direct Relief has responded include earthquakes in 1991 and 1993 and a cyclone which caused devastating floods in 1999. Direct Relief is one of a handful of humanitarian agencies which are covered by a 1968 Indo-U.S. agreement allowing aid shipments to enter India on a duty-free basis.

"We have friends and partners of long standing in the region hardest hit by this earthquake," said Direct Relief President and CEO Thomas Tighe. "We are deeply appreciative that Mr. Chowdry's company has chosen to honor his memory by allowing us to send this desperately needed aid to the people of India."

For more information, or to contact Direct Relief International, see their website at: www.directrelief.org