An 11.45 am Liat flight bound for Barbados was grounded at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) as a result of a hydraulic leak, forcing stranded passengers to wait until after 8 pm for another flight.
Stabroek News understands that the 11.45 am Liat Star of the Caribbean flight was almost full to capacity when the mechanical problem was discovered. Passengers were then asked to disembark, and were provided with snacks until they were able to depart at 8.45 pm.
Calls to the Liat office at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and the airport duty office confirmed that flight 728 had indeed been affected by a problem and had been grounded.
As a result of the delay some of the passengers would have missed their connecting flights from Barbados. The aircraft could not be immediately repaired and the passengers were forced to wait for a replacement aircraft.
LIAT and Caribbean Star have formed a commercial alliance which officially came into effect on February 1, while on March 7 it was announced that negotiations toward merging both carriers had been finalized. Shareholders of LIAT (1974) Ltd and Caribbean Star Airlines Ltd made the announcement following a meeting in Antigua between the Prime Ministers of Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent & the Grenadines, the primary shareholders of LIAT; and Sir Allen Stanford, sole shareholder of Caribbean Star Airlines. Merger negotiations had been ongoing since October 2006.
