According to Information Section of American embassy here, with the winter approaching in the earthquake-hit areas, the US helicopters had enhanced their relief efforts to ensure proper and adequate supply of relief goods to the affected areas.
During the past 80 days, US helicopters have flown more than, 2,900 sorties, carried 14,156 passengers, evacuated 3,715 injured and delivered more than 14 million pounds of humanitarian aid.
Currently operating 12 US CH 47 Chinook helicopters, along with four S70 Australian helicopters, the US Disaster Assistance Centre continues to maintain the helicopter capability required to fully meet the requests of the Pakistani government.
Additionally, the commencement of sling loading operations last month has allowed the US military to increase the rate at which it delivers aid.
Rear Admiral, Michael LeFever, Commander, Disaster Assistance Center of US in Pakistan said, "With winter arriving we are very focused on delivering aid to those areas that may be inaccessible once the weather worsens."
He said, "our sling load operations allow us to more rapidly delivery aid to these hard to reach areas." He said the helicopter sling loading provides a significant advantage for the relief efforts, allowing relief aid to be delivered in an expeditious and streamlined manner.
Traditionally, loading the inside of a helicopter takes approximately 10-15 minutes, requires a landing maneuver and another 10-15 minutes to unload at the delivery site and loading internally, the amount of humanitarian aid delivered was typically limited to about 5,000 pounds.
By using sling loads, the CH 47 Chinook is able to deliver more than 10,000 pounds of relief supplies to an affected area, and drop the supplies and quickly fly out.
After the supplies are dropped on the ground, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Pakistani military work together to collect the nets for reuse.
LeFever said, "We will continue to assess helicopter requirements, and co-ordinate closely with the Pakistani government, to ensure the appropriate number of aircraft, which are available to support the Pakistani-led relief operations."
Since helicopter operations began on October 10, it was suspended only three days when weather had prevented US helicopters from delivering relief supplies to earthquake-stricken areas.