The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said it has been difficult getting passengers’ accounts of what transpired on the Delta Airlines flight when a first class passenger activated and exited the plane through its emergency exit.
Meanwhile, the airline’s corporate communication executive would only say that the matter is engaging the attention of the local authorities. Stabroek News’s calls to the local Delta officer for an update on investigations were directed to its head office in Los Angeles, USA. Corporate Communications Expert and Regional Manager Carlos Santos in a brief telephone interview said he could not provide any details about the incident. He said the case was entirely in the hands on the local authorities.
“I cannot elaborate and I cannot provide any more details on the incident,” he said, adding, “We do look after the safety of our passengers.” Asked whether the airline was conducting its own investigations, Santos insisted that he could not comment further on the issue neither could he say whether the same passenger was booked on a return flight.
The passenger, a Guyanese citizen returning from New York aboard flight DL 383, blew the emergency exit door and exited via the emergency exit slide and onto the CJIA tarmac. According to reports, the man became agitated after no instructions had been issued to passengers when the plane landed for GCAA clearance. Reports have also indicated that the man may have been intoxicated.
In an invited comment, GCAA head Zulficar Mohammed told Stabroek News that the Authority may have to depend on assistance from the airline to get passenger account of the incident. “Passengers have been unable to give statements and we must have informed accounts to aid our investigations,” he said. He acknowledged that there have been passenger accounts carried in some media reports, but noted that these could not be used in the investigations since they could not be substantiated.
As regards possible sanctions against the passenger, Mohammed said there was no particular charge which could be applied locally. He added that if the passenger had been unruly, there are established ways to deal with such behaviour but the investigation would have to prove such conduct. Asked whether he knew if the passenger had faced any criminal charges, Mohammed was not able to pronounce definitively but said he understood that the man had since been placed on station bail at the Timehri Police station. He could not comment on whether the matter was taken further from the police’s end.
Transport Minister Robeson Benn in a comment days after the July 4 incident said he had asked the GCAA to review the matter. He said the US aviation authorities had called regarding the matter. Benn also said that the flight crew should have more control over the passengers on the plane.
Delta’s first flight to Guyana was on June 1. The aircraft had been grounded for 24 hours because of the incident and until its engineers had flown in to fix the emergency exit. Both Benn and Airport Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir had said that no sanctions were imposed on the airline following the incident.
