All told, there were more than 1,000 fatalities as a direct result of the storm. But the real number of victims is much higher, as the outbreak of water-borne diseases have begun taking hold. Thousands of people remain missing and an estimated 1.8m people were affected in some way.
In response to this tragedy, the Airbus Foundation and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC) sent 26 tonnes of emergency goods from Geneva, Switzerland, to Maputo, Mozambique.
To make the trip, Airbus used an A330neo flight test aircraft, owned by and operated by Airbus but equipped with flight-test standard, Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines.
“On 26 March, we took off from Geneva for an overnight flight to (Maputo) Mozambique departing at 21:41 and landing at 08:07,” says Niall Brolly, a Rolls-Royce engineer who was aboard the flight.
“Maputo, being in the south of the country, thankfully escaped the worst of the cyclone. This allowed us to use the airport and runway, which were big enough for an aircraft of the size of the A330 to land,” he says.
The Swiss Red Cross and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation provided the 26 tonnes of relief supplies, which included water sanitation equipment and material for a field hospital.