President Bharrat Jagdeo today said that the emergency response at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri following the crash-landing of a Caribbean Airlines flight was up and running in record time, dismissing suggestions that the authorities had been slow and deficient in tackling the accident.
‘From everything that I know the emergency response kicked in, the fire service showed up immediately after the incident and made sure that there was no fire…The security forces there surrounded the aircraft, the regulators were there…,” Jagdeo told reporters today at State House during a media briefing.
Many passengers have complained about having to fend for themselves after the aircraft, which broke in two, came to a stop after hurtling through the chain-link perimeter fence early Saturday morning. Passengers who spoke to Stabroek News did not recall seeing the security forces in the aftermath of the crash-landing.
Jagdeo, who spoke to reporters shortly after Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had paid him a courtesy call, said that he does not discount the accounts given by passengers but said the emergency response was fully mobile.
“I am not discounting passengers, I think that it did happen…you realize that when the plane came off it fell to the road so some of the people who are waiting for their relatives, because that is a short distance from the car park to where it fell by road they started running towards that point,” Jagdeo said.
He said that some vehicles would have also left the car park and travelled to the site.
But he said that members of the fire service had responded first to ensure that there was no fire and they had aimed their light at the aircraft.
“By that time individuals who were already at the airport ran to the site and I suspect some of the taxi drivers also drove to the site and they may have gotten there within three (to) five minutes after the incident. So it is impossible to mobilize the emergency in three to five minutes so by that time the passengers were already coming out and so some of them were collected by their relatives, a lot of them were helped by people and some unscrupulous taxi drivers, they also ripped people off,” Jagdeo said. One passenger had told Stabroek News that a yellow cab taxi driver asked for US$20 to ferry her to the terminal.
Jagdeo said that Guyana has a fully-funded emergency response policy and he thinks it worked well on Saturday morning.
Chronicling his involvement following the incident, the president said about 15 minutes after the crash he got a call from Transport Minister Robeson Benn who informed him that the airplane had overshot the runway and broken in half and that he was on his way to the airport.
“I said to him I am coming up to the airport too, so I called the Chief of Staff [Gary Best] and said to him `ensure that the emergency response was in place…get the army base at Timehri to be on alert and to send over the soldiers beyond what the emergency response catered for’”.
The Head-of-State said he then called Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and instructed him to prepare the hospitals, send as many ambulances as he could to the airport and ensure that some of the doctors got up to the airport to supplement the emergency response.
Jagdeo said he got to the airport maybe about an hour and ten minutes after the incident and by that time all of the passengers were in the terminal and many of them were talking about their luggage.
“My only concern at that time was you know, forget the bags don’t have people signing up forms for bags now, we would deal with bags later make sure that everyone…just relax, the doctors were coming up.
“By that time some of the doctors were arriving, the army doctor was there by the time I got there and the worst cases had already left for the hospitals immediately,” he said.
According to Jagdeo some of the injured were placed in the army ambulance while the others were seen by doctors at the airport.
Also at the airport were Commissioner of Police Henry Greene and Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle and Best.
“Every state agency got there within two hours of the incident [and that was not part of the] emergency response… I am assured that everything in the protocol kicked in, we will review that.”
Evidence
Meanwhile, there is some debate between officials of Trinidad and Guyana on whether any part of the damaged aircraft should be removed before the investigation is completed.
Persad-Bissessar speaking at a press conference at the Pegasus Hotel today said that she had indicated to officials from the airline that nothing should be touched or moved because it comprises evidence and investigators would not want contamination of the evidence.
Asked whether the tail of the fractured aircraft should be removed she said she has asked that it remain in place.
“My gut instinct tells me and, as a lawyer that you do not tamper with the scene of an event like this,” the Prime Minister said.
She said she has been advised that the insurers are saying that it can be removed and that officials from the US National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) had said it can be removed “but again we do not have that in writing.”
“We want that to happen too, we are not going to touch anything excepting the tail. It is something that the safety people have to deal with,” President Jagdeo said in response to the concerns raised by the Prime Minister.
He pointed out that the Guyanese person in charge of the investigation has contacted the NTSB and they have said it is okay.
“We don’t want anything obstructing our airport because we have had to shorten the runway because of this. The technical officials are going to make that decision and safety is our primary concern,” the head-of-state noted.
The president said he was not going to participate in that decision “but we have made sure we have cleared this with the NTSB so we are not going to do anything that can interfere with the investigation.”
“I am not even going to venture about that, I had a briefing the same night from the technical people…and they are the ones who are going to make the decision and not any politician. No politician in Guyana will interfere with that.”
