It could’ve been us.
The thought played on a near-constant loop in my mind, from the moment the plane touched down in Montego Bay, Jamaica a little after 11 a.m. Tuesday, until we were “wheels up” again around 4 p.m. and heading home to our own unscathed island of Key West.
The mental volume increased as we careened around corners in a Jamaican taxicab, passing a mountainside once dotted with small wooden homes, painted in the pastel colors of the Caribbean, now reduced to piles of lumber strewn down the hillside like pick-up sticks.
I will admit, that thought of “It could’ve been us,” was only nearly constant, as it was interrupted by the occasional mental fist pump as I surveyed my in-flight surroundings and decided private jet air travel suited me particularly well.
But let’s back up a bit to the day before I tagged along on a disaster relief flight to Jamaica, when a text from my boss, Britt Myers, asked, “If I got you on a private, hurricane relief jet to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a story tomorrow morning — back by 8 p.m. tomorrow night, would you be interested?”
My talk-to-text reply was an unequivocal, “Hell, yeah. I’ll grab my passport now.”
And thus I found myself at Signature Aviation the following morning, still unsure of the details of our mission.
Fortunately, all became clear once six of us were settled comfortably (really, really comfortably) aboard former Key West residents Jordan and Casey Smith’s Citation CJI private jet, with Jordan at the helm and fellow pilot Brad Pierce next to him.
Turns out, the two men are both volunteer members of AEROBridge Disaster Response, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes volunteer pilots whenever disaster strikes and loads their planes with relief supplies.
“Our mission is to assist in times of catastrophic emergency by coordinating donated aircraft to provide a powerful, immediate response to disaster,” Pierce said. “We have about 4,000 pilots and air assets that we can match up with the needs of a disaster. We offer a life-sustaining bridge in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, when roads are closed and there is no ground access, and before massive government assistance starts arriving. When others are fleeing from danger and darkness, our pilots are willing to fly right toward it.”
Jordan Smith was one such pilot this week, as his was the first AEROBridge plane to fly into Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa’s direct hit on Oct. 29.
“We are the pathfinding flight in,” Pierce said while Smith navigated our smooth landing in Montego Bay. “I’ve got another eight or so pilots and planes lined up to come in, but are just waiting for us to nail down the logistics with this initial trip.”
While Pierce and Smith got logistics, Jamaican towns were about to get clean drinking water, as our plane was loaded with 10 portable water filtration systems that each can provide clean water to 1,000 per day.
“So with 10 of these on board, we can ensure clean water for 10,000 people a day,” said Joe Hurston, another of our six passengers, who builds and distributes the water filtration systems as part of his own nonprofit, Air Mobile Ministries. Key Wester Justin Harris rounded out our crew of six and was there to help offload the water systems.)
Hurston bid us farewell at the Montego Bay airport, and set off to meet his team in Ocho Rios, where the systems would be installed at churches and schools.
With our cargo unloaded, the five of us found the island’s friendliest cab driver, Hodayne, and invited him to join us for lunch — if he knew of a restaurant that was open. He did.
The 15-minute drive to The Pelican restaurant showed us literal mountains of damage in the northwestern corner of Jamaica. But inside the restaurant, news started to happen.
Jordan Smith recognized a gray-haired man with a Spanish accent. It was chef Jose Andres, whose World Central Kitchen has traveled to disasters all over the world, from Ukraine and Gaza to Haiti and Puerto Rico, setting up mobile kitchens and serving more than 5 million hot meals.
Andres couldn’t have been more gracious in speaking with us, and explaining his team’s response to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, where he was working with more than 1,000 volunteers stationed all over the country.
“So far, we’ve served about 40,000 meals, but that’s not close to where we need to be,” he said, shaking his head. “We need to get to about 100,000 or 150,000.”
Moments after our chance encounter with Andres, our group ran into Philip Rose, deputy director of tourism in Jamaica. He also graciously agreed to an interview during which he thanked us immensely for being there and was glad to hear that everyone we’d encountered on the island had been gracious, helpful and appreciative, no matter what hardships they were personally enduring at their own homes.
“That’s the Jamaican spirit,” Rose said proudly. “I just spoke this morning to 300 hotel workers, who showed up to work the very next day after the storm, not knowing whether they’d be paid, but working to get the island back together for our visitors.”
And they’ll get there. Having seen what we did, it’ll take time and some places will never be the same, for sure. But the spirit of the island is alive and well, and much like our own island, the worst of the worst tends to bring out the best of the best.
All the best, Jamaica. You’ll get there. And I’ll be back there (hopefully in a private jet).
