Giant Planeload of Food, Toys Flies to Russia With Love : Relief: Plane that brought yacht for cup races returns to Russia with dozens of tons of donated supplies. Relief workers call effort a humanitarian triumph over bureaucracy and confusion.

A huge military-style cargo plane that delivered an unofficial Russian entry to San Diego for the America’s Cup sailing regatta has gone back to Moscow laden with more than 97 tons of dehydrated soup, medicine, baby food and toys, relief workers said Monday.

The Aeroflot Antonov 124, one of the world’s largest airplanes, left San Diego on Sunday night, according to officials at the California-based relief organizations that over the weekend coordinated the huge shipment of food, medicine and toys. The toys were added at the request of an aide to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, relief agency officials said.

Relief workers called the experience a humanitarian triumph over U.S. bureaucracy and the confusion plaguing the remains of what used to be the Soviet Union.

“I think it was a really wonderful effort,” said Sondra Tipton, president of Park West Children’s Fund of San Pedro, one of the relief organizers.

“That plane was going to be flying back without any cargo if (relief workers and yacht sponsors) hadn’t decided to do the humanitarian thing,” Tipton said. “We were able to put on that huge plane a small amount for that many people in Russia. Still, if it ends up that they have something to eat tonight or tomorrow night, it’s a worthy effort.”

Food shortages plague the 11-nation Commonwealth of Independent States, which succeeded the Soviet Union.

Before the first box of dehydrated noodle soup ever made it onto the massive plane, relief workers during the past two weeks had to overcome the international-flight fine print and apparent internal confusion at Aeroflot, which used to be the national Soviet carrier.

There was confusion as to whether Aeroflot, which flew the plane as part of a charter agreement, had acquired landing rights in the United States or posted the required bond with U.S. Customs officials.

En route last week to Anchorage, Alaska, the plane actually was sent back to Siberia to wait while things got sorted out, said Neil Frame, executive director of Los Angeles-based Operation U.S.A., the relief agency that a month ago had announced plans for the relief effort.

“What you saw there was kind of a microcosm of the confusion in what used to be the Soviet Union,” Frame said. “Everybody was trying to find out who was where and who’s in control.”

Eventually, U.S. officials cleared the plane to land at Anchorage, where it refueled. It already had acquired landing rights at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, where it arrived last Friday and unloaded the Age of Russia yacht.

Over the weekend, relief workers swarmed over the plane, which can carry well over 100 tons of cargo.

Park West workers loaded 64 tons of Cup O’Noodles and Top Ramen, two brands of dehydrated noodle soup, plus 150 boxes of Pink Business, an over-the-counter remedy for indigestion, and two pallets of toys, Tipton said. The toys are supposed to be delivered to a hospital for terminally ill children, she said.

The food, medicine and toys piled on by Park West workers, Tipton said, were donated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network of Santa Ana; World Opportunities International of Hollywood; and LeSea Broadcasting of South Bend, Ind.

Another relief agency, Children as the Peacemakers Foundation, a San Francisco-based group, trucked on an additional 33 tons of assorted foods, including baby food, pasta, flour and canned meats, Tipton said. Officials at that agency could not be reached for comment.

The plane left Lindbergh Field about 6 p.m. Sunday, Frame said. He said a second huge Russian plane is due back in a couple of weeks with parts for the Age of Russia yacht, and relief workers hope then to arrange a second shipment of food and medicine back to Moscow.

The yacht, meanwhile, is now berthed in San Diego’s Mission Bay, said Tom Mitchell, America’s Cup vice president of operations.

The problem, Mitchell said Monday, is that the Age of Russia group is not the officially recognized Russian syndicate for the America’s Cup challenger trials, which begin in a few weeks off San Diego, Mitchell said.

Red Star ‘92, whose yacht is due to arrive in San Diego on Jan. 10, is the official Russian challenger from a duly recognized yacht club, Mitchell said.

America’s Cup officials have asked the two Russian syndicates to work out the dispute between themselves, possibly by combining camps.

Marina Kopel, a Soviet-born executive with Zey Enterprises, a North Hollywood firm sponsoring the Age of Russia yachting team, could not be reached Monday for comment.