Minutes after departing the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri yesterday morning, Caribbean Airlines flight 662 was forced to return following a bird strike.
Director of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Zulfikar Mohammed told Stabroek News that the plane was on its way to Piarco, Trinidad and had departed the airport at about 10:30 am. The plane, he said, landed again at 10:36 am and there were no injuries. There were 152 passengers on the flight, which had other connections to Toronto, Canada.
Mohammed said that the aircraft will remain grounded until the necessary repairs are conducted. The affected passengers were able to depart Guyana yesterday on another Caribbean airlines flight.
Bird strikes, Mohammed said, are a rare occurrence in Guyana. “We don’t have too many bird strikes here,” he said. A GINA release, last evening, said that this was the first noted incident of a bird-strike of a large commercial jet liner, which resulted in the pilots taking the decision to stage an emergency landing.
Transport and Hydraulics Minister Robeson Benn visited the airport following the incident. GINA quoted him as saying that on take-off (about five miles from the airport) and at an altitude of 3000 feet a bird-strike occurred impacting the left engine of the aircraft. The engine sustained critical damage and will have to undergo repairs to some parts, the release said.
“Captain Richard Law and co-pilot Michael Abraham made a prudent decision based on the vibrations and sounds coming out of the engine to circle back and return for an emergency landing at the CJIA,” Benn was quoted as saying.
According to the release, actions will have to be undertaken by the Public Works Ministry along with the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and the Agriculture Ministry to deal with the vultures circling some areas of the airport where offal (entrails from chicken and pigs) are dumped.
“A great amount of efforts has been expended over the last two years to have some of these operations removed from the vicinity of the airport however, it was noted again, today, that these vultures are circling in excess of 3000 feet from the airport over disposal areas,” Benn reportedly said.
The partnership with the agencies is aimed at ensuring a safe, environmentally sustainable and proper disposal of waste from the animal rearing operations in the vicinity of the airport, the release said.
