Worldwide Quake Help Pouring Into Armenia : 3 Planes Carrying Official American Aid

Three U.S. planes carrying relief specialists, rescue dogs and thousands of tents and cots departed for Soviet Armenia on Saturday in the first official U.S. aid effort for the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.

Meanwhile, Americans across the nation mounted efforts on their own to send food, clothing, money and medical supplies to the victims of Wednesday’s earthquake.

In the most remarkable of the official flights, a C-5A transport plane took off from an American military base in Pisa, Italy, to carry supplies into Armenia. The imaginary Iron Curtain was lifted as the Soviet Union gave clearance for U.S. Air Force planes to enter Soviet territory.

A State Department spokesman said the transport was obliged to transfer its cargo to a smaller C-141 plane at another American base in Turkey because, without any precedent to guide them, U.S. officials were unsure whether the runway at Yerevan in Soviet Armenia could handle the huge C-5A.

“We anticipate there may be other flights,” a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said Saturday night.

The Soviet Union had made a formal request for the U.S. aid on Friday, two days after the massive earthquake struck Armenia. The Soviet action was itself a dramatic reflection of the improved climate in Soviet-American relations over the past year.

In Washington on Saturday, President-elect George Bush, his wife, Barbara, his incoming national security adviser, Brent A. Scowcroft, and Secretary of State George P. Shultz all visited the Soviet Embassy to express sympathy for the earthquake victims.

‘Anguish in Our Hearts’

Bush signed a book of condolences at the embassy: “With anguish in our hearts for all those in the Soviet Union who lost loved ones.”

Shultz, who met privately with Soviet Ambassador Yuri V. Dubinin at the embassy and accepted a letter from Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, said, “This is an immense tragedy, and we are responding to it in every way we can.”

“We are deeply moved by the response,” Dubinin said. “We are open to all assistance necessary to help people.”

Dr. Robert P. Gale, the UCLA bone-marrow transplant specialist who helped treat victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, was among those taking part in the relief effort. Dubinin said Gale’s presence in Armenia did not mean that the earthquake had damaged nuclear facilities in the stricken area.

The official U.S. relief effort was coordinated by the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The director of the office, Julia V. Taft, accompanied the first relief flight to Yerevan early Saturday morning.

First Aid Since War

The U.S. government had not provided any aid for the Soviet Union since the days in the 1940s when the two countries were wartime allies against Germany. After the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet Union accepted aid from private American groups but not from the American government.

Efforts by private American organizations around the nation paralleled the unprecedented relief effort by the U.S. government. “I just cannot believe the response we are getting,” Sonia Tanielian of the Armenian Church of Seattle told the Associated Press.

On Saturday afternoon, a Boeing 707 chartered by AmeriCares, a private group in New Canaan, Conn., left from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City carrying 95,000 pounds of medicines, syringes, water purification tablets, sheets and other supplies to Armenia.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Edward DiPrete offered to send his state’s National Guard to Armenia if President Reagan would give approval. “It’s just a willingness to help in whatever way possible,” the Republican governor said.

In Miami, an international arms dealer announced that he intended to load three planes with relief supplies. In Muncie, Ind., two businessmen set up a bank account for donations and a drop point for gifts of clothing.

Flight Leaves Dulles

The first official American relief flight, a chartered 727, left from Dulles International Airport in Washington at 3:30 Saturday morning, half a day after the official Soviet request for U.S. aid.

The plane carried six trauma specialists, eight dogs trained to sniff out survivors buried in earthquake rubble, one shelter specialist and three representatives of Armenian-American organizations. Taft and two other officials from AID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance were also on the flight.

The chartered plane also carried gloves, protective masks, hand-held radios, plastic sheeting, tents and four 3,000-gallon water tanks for the American relief personnel.

“This is a special opportunity for us to reach out and work with the Soviet Union,” said Taft, before leaving. The relief flight landed in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia, early this morning.

On Saturday afternoon, the first military aircraft left the United States for the Soviet Union. The plane, an Air Force C-141 transport, departed from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington carrying 19 rescue workers and about 5,000 pounds of rescue tools and supplies.

Specialists from Florida

Among the passengers was a rescue team of eight workers from Dade County, Fla., that had previously been dispatched to Mexico City to help in relief efforts after that city’s earthquake in 1985, and another team of 10 relief experts from Fairfax County, Va., who have special training in cave-ins.

The plane also carried 750 blankets, 100 tents and survival kits with supplies such as dried food.

Another U.S. military plane, leaving from Italy, carried stockpiles of supplies that AID maintains at Leghorn Air Force Base in Pisa for use in disaster relief. The 28 tons of supplies loaded onto the C-5A transport plane included 7,000 cots and 5,000 tents.

In all, an AID spokesman said, the three flights provided about $386,000 worth of relief for Soviet Armenia.

The American Red Cross also announced that it was sending 10,000 blood bags on a Finnair flight from New York to Moscow. Richard F. Schubert, president of the American Red Cross, said the earthquake relief effort marks the first occasion on which the Soviet Red Cross has accepted shipments of emergency supplies from his organization.