Even before Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, Florida attorney Dan Newlin gathered up supplies from local stores and prepared to launch the first relief flights into the country.
Newlin’s connection to the island nation goes back more than five years. His friend, Jamaica-American recording artist Shaggy, asked Newlin for help to support the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston.
That began a longtime association with the care center that also includes funding physicians and equipment for needed surgeries on behalf of the Cardiac Kids program. “As we watched the storm track, it was obvious the hospital and all the residents were going to get hit hard,” Newlin said. “So, Shaggy and I decided to get loaded up and be ready to go as soon as we could.”
Newlin bought up all the supplies he could find at local Walmart and Target stores, while his daughter in San Diego used Instacart to have more items shipped directly to him. Friends and volunteers helped pack Newlin’s Gulfstream G500 and Textron Aviation Cessna Citation Latitude with bottled water, Gatorade, non-perishable food, medical equipment, hygiene products and diapers.
He also lauded his three-person flight operation for arranging the necessary permits to get into Jamaica mere hours after the storm’s passage. “I’m not certain how my guys pulled it off, but I give full credit to [chief pilot] Capt. Todd Grooms,” Newlin said, “And it probably didn’t hurt that we had Shaggy, the ‘cultural ambassador of Jamaica’ involved, too.”
Once airborne, “you could feel how heavy the plane was,” he added. “We literally stacked stuff from back to front, floor to ceiling. When we went to unload it all, I thought, ‘Holy smokes. We brought all that!'”
Newlin first donated use of his aircraft for humanitarian relief in 2017, following Hurricane Maria’s strike on Puerto Rico. “There was still debris all over the runway,” he recalled. “We were overloaded with generators, ice and water, and we brought back people on dialysis who weren’t able to get treatment with the power out.”
Shaggy and Newlin are now organizing more flights into Jamaica, transporting supplies to Falmouth and the Black River region. “The hospital there was completely destroyed,” Newlin said. “We’re working to get medical supplies from a Miami hospital, and we’ll go as soon as they’re ready.
“Aviation offers tremendous opportunities to give back,” he concluded. “Our community brings people together like none other, especially in times of emergency to get equipment and supplies where they’re needed, fast.”
