On 14 January 2010, Italy dispatched a C-130 loaded with 20 surgeons, some soldiers, some civil protection officers, and a field hospital. It decided to send a warship.[7]
On 19 January 2010, Cavour set sail for Haiti, leaving La Spezia.[3][8][9]
As of 29 January 2010, Cavour had picked up a Brazilian relief force at Fortaleza. The Brazilians added two helicopters, a UH-14 Super Puma and a UH-12 Squirrel (AS350[10]), 11 civilians (6 doctors, 5 nurses), 63 military (25 health professionals).[11]
On 1 February 2010, Cavour arrived at the Dominican Republic port of Puerto Caucedo, near the capital of Santo Domingo.[4] The land element, Task Force Genio,[5] disembarked, and would trek overland to Haiti, due to the damaged docks at Port-au-Prince. Cavour has RO-RO capability.[NB 2] It would depart for Haiti later.[12]
On 3 February 2010, Cavour had disgorged all the land-mobile land-element.[13] The overland trip to Port-au-Prince from Puerto Caucedo took 36 hours.[14]
On 6 February 2010, Cavour arrived at Port-au-Prince.[15]
As of 7 February 2010, over 25 aid flights using the Italian and Brazilian helicopters over the two days that Cavour had been at Port-au-Prince, had been completed.[10]
Cavour had remain docked at Port-au-Prince through mid-April.[16]
Reactions
Several Italians have criticized the use of Cavour since it costs over 200,000 Euros a day to operate, and shipping by air would have been far faster. Others have said, that it is a drop in the bucket compared to the efforts by the US. Some have pointed out, it is one of the largest efforts out of Europe.[6]
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