Syria: high winds and technical difficulties hinder UN airdrop

Syria: high winds and technical difficulties hinder UN airdrop | Global development | The Guardian:
"The UN’s first attempt to airdrop food to thousands of Syrian civilians in the besieged city of Deir ez-Zor has been thwarted by high winds and technical difficulties, according to the World Food Programme.

The UN food agency, which organised Wednesday’s operation, said of the 21 pallets of food airdropped to the city,

• four were damaged because their parachutes failed to open properly, 
• seven landed in no man’s land and 
• 10 drifted away and remained unaccounted for.

The mission saw a WFP-chartered Russian transport plane drop the equivalent of a medium-sized truckload of vegetable oil, lentils, rice and salt from an altitude of 7,000 metres (23,000ft).
Had it landed safely, the food would have fed 2,500 people for a month.
Unverified reports have suggested that as many as 20 people in the city have already died of starvation..."