Kenneth Somerset became the hero to a family last Saturday, when he helped a little boy escape from the Caribbean Airlines plane that crash landed at the Cheddi International Airport, Timehri.
Somerset, who was a passenger on the ill-fated plane, recounted to Stabroek News that the child’s grandmother jumped, then he and then the child. He believed the boy was about six years old. “It would have been disastrous if he had jumped,” he said, while noting that many passengers suffered injuries after jumping from the wrecked plane.
According to Somerset, the child’s grandmother begged him to catch the boy. He said that the child jumped into his hands and his grandmother could not express her gratitude. During an interview at his Beterverwagting East Coast Demerara home, he said that he arrived in Trinidad on a flight from Fort Lauderdale. From there, he boarded the plane en route to Guyana.
Somerset, who has been living in the US for the past 30 years, said that he was sitting around the middle section of the plane. He recalled that prior to landing, it was raining slightly. He said that travel from Trinidad was “smooth” but when the aircraft touched down in Guyana, he felt a bump. He then “heard the brakes and it slowed down then next thing I knew I felt a drop.” He said he felt a jerk in his neck and a sharp pain in his spine, then the lights went out and bags being stored in the overhead cabins started to fall out.
He recalled that at this point persons started to scream and before he knew it people started jumping out the plane. According to Somerset, they were subsequently moved away from the plane, which was smoking.
“The firemen had everybody evacuated. Ambulance was slow in coming,” he said, while adding that passengers were crying. He said they were later taken back to the front of the airport and then to the Georgetown Hospital, where they met the pilot and an air hostess.
“They (the aircraft staff) didn’t care. The captain usually leaves the ship last,” he pointed out.
Since the episode, Somerset, who said he still has a pain in his neck, has branded the Cheddi Jagan International Airport as the worst in the world. “They really need to update this airport. All other airports are well lit. Nothing was wrong with the engine,” he said, while adding that he will never travel with Caribbean Airlines again. He said the airline is his preferred choice when he makes his annual visit to Guyana. “Praise God there was no fire or anything,” he said.
Meanwhile, a traumatised Maxine Eversley sustained injures to her neck and she is currently in a neck brace. She told Stabroek News that her husband and her sister-in-law also suffered injuries after they jumped out the aircraft. She thanked God, “because I know that it could have been a lot worse.”
Another survivor, Odessa Forde, recalled a constant bumping prior to the crash.
She said that she jumped from the wing of the plane and sustained injuries to her hand and back.
She, like other passengers, said that at no time did the pilot indicate that something was wrong prior to the crash. “He did not say whether we are going to hit hard or so. After the crash we were walking around the plane we really didn’t have any assistance at the time and then someone came and got us,” she said.
Forde said that the incident has left her shaken and afraid to fly. “It was like your whole life flashed right in front of you. I am in pain and I have to go back to work,” she said. Additionally, the Georgetown Public Hospital in a press release yesterday said that four victims of the plane crash turned up around 8am seeking medical attention. They were a 48-year-old female, who complained of chest pains radiating in the left arm; a 26-year-old female who complained of pains in the right shoulder; a 6-year-old girl who complained of pains to the right leg; and a four-year-old boy who complained of pains in the right leg and knee. The patients, who are all members of the George family, are said to be from Wismar, Linden. They were treated and sent away, the Hospital said.
