An Air Services aircraft ferrying Caricom delegates, who were in Guyana for the Heads of Government Conference, from Kaieteur Falls to Ogle made an emergency landing on Saturday afternoon at the Baganara Island airstrip after one of the aircraft’s engines failed.
When contacted for a comment yesterday afternoon, Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Zulficar Mohammed confirmed that the Britten Norman Islander, twin engine aircraft which was en-route to Ogle from Kaieteur made an emergency landing at Baganara noting that the aircraft had a problem with one engine.
According to a source the aircraft, registered as 8R-GHE, departed Ogle around 11 am on Saturday for Kaieteur Falls and landed there around lunchtime. After spending a few hours on the ground at Kaieteur, the craft departed around 3:15 for Ogle with 10 persons on board including the pilot but developed a problem with one of its engines which eventually lost power.
The source said the pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Baganara Island since the other operable engine began to give trouble.
Another aircraft was dispatched to transport the Caricom delegates to Ogle while a team of engineers was also sent in to Baganara along with GCAA officials to investigate the incident.
Stabroek News understands that the aircraft travelled back to Ogle yesterday on one engine.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that there was another incident around 2 pm yesterday which could have resulted in catastrophic consequences had the pilot of a LIAT Dash 8 aircraft, which was inbound to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri from Barbados, not taken evasive action to avoid colliding with a Learjet which had departed from CJIA minutes earlier. The GCAA director told this newspaper yesterday that he had to confirm whether the incident occurred.
According to reports, the Learjet came within hundreds of feet of the LIAT aircraft, resulting in that aircraft’s pilot making a radical turn to avoid a collision.
It was unclear whether that incident was as a result of pilot error or an Air Traffic Services error.
This newspaper understands that the Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding was expected to travel on the Learjet to his country but was reportedly in Georgetown at the time of the incident.
On Thursday another aircraft, a Britten Norman Islander, twin engine craft belonging to Roraima Airways overran the runway at Fairview with six passengers on board along with the pilot.
No one was injured in that incident which is currently being investigated by the GCAA.