The Brazilian Air Force announced that two planes carrying specialized personnel and medical equipment took off on Friday for Haiti, which has been severely damaged by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

So far, Brazil has sent a total of six aircraft to Haiti with tons of food and water, several shipments of medicine, physicians, nurses, rescue workers with sniffer dogs, volunteers, and medical equipment for the field hospital that the Air Force will set up in Port-au-Prince.

According to the Air Force, two field hospitals were already sent to Haiti, and each one of them is equipped with intensive care units and surgery stations.

Other three planes are scheduled to take off on Friday, sending more aid to the devastated country. Additionally, planes with Brazilian citizens who were injured in the quake are to arrive in Brazil during the day.

So far, the body of only one of the Brazilian earthquake victims has arrived in the country. Physician Zilda Arns is to be buried on Friday in Curitiba, her hometown. Her funeral will be open to the public.

The bodies of the 14 Brazilian military personnel who were killed in Haiti are to arrive in Brazil on Sunday at the latest, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said earlier in the day. Other two Brazilian civilians and four military personnel are believed to having been killed in the Haitian tragedy, but there is no information on their bodies.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)