A Cessna and sass get aid to Aceh

Susi Pudjiastuti, an Indonesian businesswoman, smiles broadly as her Cessna light aircraft springs into the skies above North Sumatra, ferrying a cargo of food, medicine, and water to the shattered west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province.

Sitting in a muddy tent beside a little-used hangar, the husky-voiced Susi cajoles, coaxes, and pleads with local companies and politicians to provide cargoes for a plane owned by her own company, PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation.

Susi and her pilot husband, Christian von Strombeck, have been leading a maverick relief effort, flying emergency supplies to hundreds of victims of the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, often bending the rules along the way. "You've got to be crazy to get things done in this country," she says.

Not all of the thousands of volunteers hoping to help with the relief efforts have Susi's contacts - or the defiant spirit of a dropout rebel who made her own way to the top. She counts among her friends an influential general, a former minister, and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Those in a hurry here must bypass procedures and rely on personal contacts. "I hate politics," she says. "But I have friends in all the political parties."

Susi and Christian have financed the operation largely themselves, ferrying in medical supplies, food, water, and relief workers to disaster zones such as Meulaboh, the city closest to the epicenter of the earthquake that triggered the tsunami.

Their two light Cessna aircrafts (of only seven in Indonesia), can land on small or damaged airstrips inaccessible to the many giant C-130 Hercules aircraft now languishing in Medan's airport. "Air Susi," the company's working name, has been flying five or six flights a day for the past week.

Although Susi Air can only carry up to 1,000 cubic feet of cargo, it is badly needed in a province where the tsunami has left an official 94,000 dead. Indonesia says already 270,000 displaced people are living in camps. The number may rise to up to one million.

In a setback to the relief effort Tuesday, the main runway in Banda Aceh was closed temporarily after a Boeing 737 relief plane hit a herd of water buffalo. No one was hurt and workers removed the cargo plane from the runway later. But other relief planes were grounded for much of the day. Susi's Cessnas have thus far proved nimble enough to dodge buffaloes on other airstrips. In the interim, much of the relief effort was carried out by helicopters - mainly based on US Navy vessels.

As the $2 billion international relief effort lumbers into action, volunteers like Susi are leaping bureaucratic hurdles to deliver aid.

Susi has left behind 700 employees and a marine products business with close to $10 million a year in sales to run the private rescue mission.

The company is forgoing commercial charter rates in North Sumatra of up to $1,000 per flying hour. Susi occasionally offers free flights to some relief organizations like the Red Cross, and charges others enough to keep the service running.

"If noone helped, I could go bankrupt," she says after the national power utility chartered her plane, allowing it operate for another few days.

Appreciative text messages flood in on her cellphone from those who have heard of Susi's efforts. "I was heartened by your actions, thank u for helping them," read one message from Singapore. "May god bless u," read another.

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