May 03--REPORTING FROM KATMANDU, Nepal -- Eight days after Nepal's massive earthquake, three survivors have been found alive beneath the rubble of buildings destroyed in the devastating temblor, officials said Sunday.
An Icelandic Red Cross official said the survivors were found about 12 miles from Chautara in Sindhupalchowk district in northeast Nepal, five hours' drive east of the capital Katmandu.
The survivors reportedly were flown to Katmandu for medical treatment.
Some Nepali officials had dismissed chances of finding more survivors after two were recovered on Thursday in Katmandu. But U.S., Nepali, Chinese and other search-and-rescue teams continue to comb through rubble for possible survivors.
Foreign assistance to the stricken nation has largely been funneled through Tribhuvan International Airport. Though passenger service was closer to normal Sunday, the facility is still subsumed by the disaster, a week after the quake turned it into a hub of despair and frustration.
Outside the Tribhuvan airport terminal, those still searching for missing travelers from Asia and Europe posted signs, some with pictures of backpackers who disappeared in avalanches triggered by the 7.8 quake on April 25.
Outside the Nepal army's aviation unit, a dozen friends and relatives of a trekking guide killed by a quake-triggered avalanche in the northwestern mountain community of Langtang awaited release of his body. Hechit Pant, 25, died with a French couple he had been leading up the mountain, and the lone survivor of their group, also a French national, was expected to appear with the body.
But by afternoon, there was no sign of the man, and the group dispersed.
More than 6,600 have died in the quake, and Nepalese officials have said they expect the death toll to increase as they reach remote areas and comb the rubble.
The first flights carrying about 500 U.S. forces, heavy equipment and helicopters were expected to arrive Sunday afternoon, officials said.
U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, who is commanding the operation, arrived at the airport Sunday with a contingent of half a dozen other uniformed U.S. service members. They viewed the facility, walking past the aviation unit's ornate temple toward the airport's sole runway.
"We're just here making sure nothing goes off the rails," Kennedy told The Times as he left the aviation unit.
"You see that tarmac. It's busy. You've got flights coming in from Thailand and if you're late, you lose your slot. So that's why we're here," he said.
He was expected to return later to greet the U.S. flights.
Nepalese army officials stationed at the airport said eight flights were scheduled, starting at 4:30 p.m. local time. They said they have worked to streamline customs screening of international aid as it arrives.
The U.N. has asked the Nepalese government to relax customs controls it says have delayed relief shipments. Nepalese army officials at the airport said they have already improved screening of plane manifests at customs and have suspended fees, but that minimum screening is still necessary -- especially to prevent fraud.
"I am getting calls from my relatives in the U.S. that they are worried the aid is being taken from the people at the airport, that the government is taking it," said a Nepalese army official who works in the aviation unit and asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak.
In the initial aftermath of the earthquake, the official said, planes were showing up at the airport with scant paperwork and nobody to claim shipments.
"We just thought it was aid so it went in the warehouse and was inventoried. Then groups would come and say 'that was for us,'" the official said.
Customs isn't the problem, he said.
He held up a fax from FedEx that arrived with a shipment from Memphis, Tenn. He said it was indecipherable and that it's unclear whom the shipment came from or where it is intended to go.
"The confusion occurs because we receive this type of request and it arrives and no one understands where it came from," he said.
But he said officials have improved how they handle such misunderstandings, and that processing paperwork has become "more systematic."
"The thing that is delaying is our capacity for aircraft to land over here and distribute materials," he said. The airport has nine bays, he said, but only six or seven can handle larger aircraft such as 747s.
He pointed to a paper on his desk, an offer from yet another international group to fly in aid. "We cannot allow them to land because our airport's not big enough" for the plane the group wants to send, he said.
The U.S. operation is designed to streamline the delivery of aid at the airport and in more rural areas.
Among the first U.S. aircraft to arrive, perhaps as early as Sunday, will be four vertical-takeoff Osprey that will be joined by Army Chinook helicopters capable of ferrying cargo to mountain communities devastated by the quake whose roads were blocked by landslides.
U.S. forces will also bring forklifts to more quickly unload and route shipments.
The flights will take off and land from Tribhuvan airport as well as several smaller airstrips and helicopter landing zones around the country, Kennedy said. U.S. aircraft are not expected to deliver goods directly to towns or villages but instead will ferry them to distribution points where Nepalese authorities and international aid agencies will take charge.
A Nepalese official who came to the airport Sunday with questions about a shipment he expects from the Shree Pashupatinath Foundation in Norwalk, Calif., said he was pleased with the operation.
"There's no problems," said N.B. Budhathoki. "The aid is reaching the people. Don't believe the rumors."
Search-and-rescue teams from around the world remained camped out in a field near the airport, but Nepalese officials said there was increasingly less for them to do as the disaster response shifts from rescue to recovery and relief.
Staff writer Shashank Bengali contributed to this report.
UPDATE
3:40 a.m.: This article has been updated with news that three survivors have been found in the rubble of buildings destroyed by the quake.
This article was originally posted at 12:44 a.m.
