Newly Delivered Aircraft Pressed Into Indonesian Relief Services

Cessna Aircraft Company has joined one of its Indonesian Caravan customers in providing aid to the victims of Asia's tsunami.

Owner of PT ASI Pudjiastuti, Ms. Susi Pudjiastuti, took delivery of Indonesia's first two privately operated Grand Caravans (file photo of type, below)  in 2004. PT ASI Pudjiastuti is an Indonesian fishing/seafood operation. With the recent turn of events, Pudjiastuti is now using the new aircraft around the clock to fly in needed supplies and medivac personnel from remote areas of Indonesia to aid in the Tsunami disaster relief efforts.

Cessna has teamed with Pudjiastuti by donating money for supplies. To date, Cessna's employees and the company have donated over $20,000. This money has been used to purchase supplies such as medical supplies, water purification equipment, rice and milk. Much of this effort is being coordinated through Cessna's Singapore sales office.

Cessna Aircraft Company's Caravan is virtually made for this kind of mission because of its short field capabilities, high payload capacity, reliability, low operating cost, and adaptability. The interior can be configured in a variety of ways to accommodate specific mission requirements. The most frequent Caravan payload consists of people, freight or a combination of both. The Caravan was first introduced in 1984, and was originally designed to provide commercial operators such as Federal Express with a more efficient way to transport cargo. Today, over 1,400 have been delivered to over 60 countries. The Caravan fleet logs over 30,000 hours per month. The fleet has exceeded 7 million flight hours.

Separately, Textron Wednesday announced it would donate up to $750,000 to assist with relief efforts in the Southeast Asian and African countries affected by the recent devastation and aftermath caused by the December 26th earthquake and related tsunamis. The donation includes an initial company contribution of $250,000 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund's tsunami relief efforts, in addition to a $250,000 grant for a dollar-for-dollar match of employee contributions to the organization.

FMI: www.cessna.com