The lack of a proper rescue system when Caribbean Airlines flight BW 523 crash-landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Saturday has left passengers upset with one woman saying that the authorities ought to be prepared.
In an interview with Stabroek News, the passenger who asked that her identity not be revealed, said that before the aircraft touched down, she saw no lights on the runway and when the plane halted, broken in two, the air hostesses were the first off the plane and offered no assistance. In addition, no rescuers came to assist, she said. Flight BW 523 skidded off the runway and broke in two as it landed at the CJIA at about 1:32am on Saturday. Miraculously there were no fatalities.
The jet, carrying 163 passengers and crew, had left New York on Friday and when it arrived in at the Piarco airport in Trinidad, late that night, the crew members were changed and a new set of air hostesses came on,” the woman said. “When we were taking off from Trini, it seemed a bit sluggish to me. Secondly the flight from Trinidad to Georgetown is only about 55 minutes…why would you go up 35000 feet for such a short flight?”
The woman, a frequent flyer to Guyana, said that whenever she travels between Piarco and the CJIA the plane never goes that high. “When the pilot was bringing the plane down, it was way too rough. He was going too hard, rocking the plane,” she recounted. The woman also added that there were no lights on the runway. “Usually it’s lit up but this time it was pitch black,” she said. “The pilot also did not circle…usually when I’m flying, the pilot would tilt the plane a bit and kind of turn it…but this guy didn’t do that,” she recalled.
When we were landing, my son’s seatbelt was a bit loose so I tightened it. And we started counting the seconds to when we were gonna touch the ground. I’m counting 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9…nine and a half and we still didn’t land!” she exclaimed. The woman said that she also noticed that the “flaps” on the wings were not up. “The flaps supposed to open up to slow the plane down but the flap on my side was not up,” she said.
The mother of two boys who were also on the plane with her, said that the entire experience has left them terrified. “I don’t know how I’m getting these children back on a plane. My youngest (son) says that he doesn’t wanna come back to Guyana. Thank God they weren’t hurt. They were strapped in,” the woman said.
“When we finally hit the ground the plane was moving really fast. And the ground was bumpy, like gravel and rocks and so but it was not the runway,” she recounted. The woman sustained a deep cut on her nose during the landing. “I pitched into the back of the seat in front of me…and then I went back and pitched forward again,” she recalled. She said she was strapped in securely and was puzzled as to how she moved backward and forward like that. “I went into that seat real hard. I had blood all over my clothes,” the woman recounted. She said that she is suffering from neck and back pain while her face is swollen and hurts.
Recounting the incident further, the woman said that while trying to get down from the plane, she started to tumble down. “The chute was open but I don’t know if it was popped or something. But it wasn’t inflated. Everybody was pushing to come out. Some people were screaming that the plane was gonna explode so it was crazy,” she said.
The woman told Stabroek News that the air hostesses were the first people off the plane. “They supposed to make sure that every last passenger is off the plane safely and they were first ones off the plane. That’s really bad right there,” she declared.
Her anger rising, the woman lambasted the lack of proper security systems. “It’s really bad on the country that they don’t have proper systems in place to rescue people in situations like this. And that is really upsetting. You don’t wait for these things to happen before you put systems in place. You supposed to be prepared,” she shouted.
“The staff was just standing up watching instead of trying to assist us! There was no rescue team. Nobody came! Nobody came” the woman exclaimed while her family tried to calm her down.
She said she received all her luggage at 4pm on Saturday after waiting all day. The upset woman stated that the compensatory US$500 being offered by the airline is not going to help the situation. The amount cannot do much, she said.
