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The confusing, chaotic, frustrating, but ultimately triumphant rescue mission of 53 orphans from earthquake-shattered Haiti to Pittsburgh almost didn't get off the ground "a lot of times," said Leslie Merrill McCombs, one of several people who helped coordinate the effort.

Ever since the first frantic BlackBerry messages started coming from Jamie and Ali McMutrie, two Ben Avon sisters who operated an orphanage destroyed in Jan. 12's earthquake, Ms. McCombs, a senior consultant to UPMC's government affairs office, had been working with government officials to get a plane to rescue the two women and the children in their care.

A coordinated effort by officials from UPMC, the Red Cross and Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, helped by the political muscle of U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and Gov. Ed Rendell, resulted in Monday's flight aboard a charter plane provided by Republic Airways. Their aim was to fly to Port-au-Prince, pick up the McMutrie women and the children in their care and return immediately to Pittsburgh.

By the time the charter took off late Monday morning, 31 people were on it. Among them were Mr. Rendell, his wife Marjorie; Mr. Altmire, members of the McMutrie family; Dr. Mary Carrasco, director of A Child's Place in the Pittsburgh Mercy System; Dr. Alan Russell, director of the McGowan Center for Regenerative Medicine; and other medical personnel and volunteers.

As the plane descended closer to Port-au-Prince airport, they saw flickers of light that the passengers eventually recognized as bonfires set intentionally for light and heat on the ground.

"It was total chaos. The airport was like a war zone. We'd never seen anything like it," Ms. McCombs said. The airfield and airport were mobbed with people -- U.S. troops, U.N. officials, the news media and thousands of Haitians.

The team had a narrow window.

On Sunday, Ms. McCombs said, the Pentagon informed them that "a brief window" had been made available at the Port-au-Prince airport between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. for their plane, loaded with 4,000 pounds of medical supplies, to land. They were supposed to unload the supplies and bring aboard the children in that one-hour period.

Standing on the tarmac just a few feet from five C-130s, their engines going at full-throttle, with cell phone coverage fading in and out, Ms. McCombs went up to a vehicle and asked for the driver if they could get a ride to the embassy. The driver said he would, but then left when the rescue party questioned whether they should go into Port-au-Prince without a military escort.

Finally, Ms. McCombs, Mrs. Rendell, Dr. Russell, and UPMC's head of security, Ed Marinzel, found an Army major to take them to the U.S. Embassy -- about a 15-minute drive -- where the two McMutrie sisters and the orphans were waiting in the hot, 90-degree night in vans and cars parked outside the building.

When they arrived, "there were all these babies hanging out the windows" of the vehicles, Ms. McCombs said. "They just knew we were there to rescue them. They were hugging us, kissing us," she said.

Still, when she peered into one van, she could hear babies coughing. "A few were more sick than the others," she said.

Originally, 150 children were in the McMutries' care. Two were picked up by relatives in Haiti, and five had been sent to Miami by other means, while 87 of them were taken by the French and Dutch government.

Of those remaining, 40 were headed to the U.S., four were going to Spain, three to Canada and 7 were still available for adoption.

"I have to tell you I felt a little safer with Governor [Ed] Rendell on board, and I don't think any of what transpired would have, if the governor had not been on board," said neonatologist Arcangela Balest, 49, of Franklin Park. "They were contacting government officials. They were getting the airplane to land. They were getting the kids released with special visas.

"I think without him, none of it happens."

The McMutrie sisters were very nervous about the airlift, said Ms. McCombs. "They were hysterical" when she first encountered them outside the embassy, Ms. McCombs said, "but Mrs. Rendell and I are both moms, and were able to talk them down off the ledge."

Then, Ms. McCombs and Mrs. Rendell went into the embassy.

With the clock ticking, their hour-long "window" at the airport was closing and their plane was going to have to leave, to make way for other military aircraft that were circling overhead.

"Everyone at the embassy said don't go back to the airport, your plane is going to have to leave, you'll never get back in time and get the children on board. But then, the top military official there said, go, go -- I'll get you on the next military plane out," Ms. McCombs said.

When they arrived at the airport, their plane was gone -- all their luggage and medical supplies were sitting on the tarmac.

"We weren't surprised," Ms. McCombs said. "But we were celebrating because we had vans of children following us, dancing around inside the vans and singing."

For several hours, they waited at the airport for a military plane to become available. Finally, they were able to get out on a U.S. Air Force C-17, a massive military transport, which took them to Orlando.

Before departing, they tried to keep the kids calm amid the chaos.

"We did head counts constantly," she added. Finally once a military plane pulled up and the children were taken on board and strapped in, they did a final head count.

One child, who would be the 54th, was missing.

The McMutrie sisters were adamant. "The military was saying we had to go, but Jamie McMutrie insisted on staying behind to find the baby -- which she did," said Ms. McCombs.

"It was our darkest hour," added Ali McMutrie, who celebrated her 22nd birthday yesterday sitting in front of a half-dozen camera crews telling her story.

"We promised the children, literally, verbally, that we would never, ever leave them -- not one of them," said Ms. McMutrie, clad in a purple T-shirt and gray hooded sweatshirt.

When 2-year-old Emma went missing, Jamie committed to stay in Haiti, because, her sister said, "it was literally one child being left behind."

During the flight from Haiti to Pittsburgh, the children, who had been barefoot, were given clothes, shoes, dresses, T-shirts, along with food, crackers, snacks, coloring books and crayons. "These children had never seen anything like crayons before. Everyone was getting one-on-one attention."

Last night, Jamie McMutrie was resting in a hotel in Miami after leaving Haiti with little Emma. They are due in Pittsburgh today.