An investigator from Guyana and another from Jamaica arrived in Washington yesterday to assist with interpreting data from the flight recorders of Caribbean Airlines Flight 523, which crash-landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Saturday.
A preliminary report on the crash is expected within weeks but would not be released publicly, head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Zulfikar Mohamed said. Apart from this, an internal assessment has been prepared and submitted to the authorities here, Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn had said.
Mohamed said yesterday that the investigators are still gathering information and conducting interviews. “It’s still a matter of getting information,” he told Stabroek News.
Later this week, the plane will be moved from the site where it came to rest after it overshot the runway. “It will be stored at the airport,” Mohamed confirmed. The team from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still here and will likely return to Washington by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the flight crew of the plane has returned to Trinidad. The Trinidad Guardian reported yesterday that the six-member crew, including Captain Fareed Dean, returned to Trinidad on Tuesday morning.
The crew returned after being interviewed by the International Multi-Disciplinary Investigation Team on Monday. It was reported that the pilot, co-pilot and navigator of the plane would remain off flight duty until some probable cause for the crash is determined. No disciplinary action would be taken against them, pending the outcome of the investigation, the Trinidad Newsday reported.
At about 1:32am on Saturday, CAL Flight 523 overshot the runway and plowed through the perimeter fence of the airport before the jet broke in two. There were 162 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 737-800 aircraft at the time of the crash. Miraculously, there were no fatalities.
Three persons were hospitalized and two have since been discharged. However, late Sunday, Noel Elliot, who sustained a broken leg, was taken for surgery on his leg. The Georgetown Public Hospital said in a statement that Elliot was admitted on Saturday morning in a stable condition: he showed good vitals and was in high spirits. However, in the evening he started to complain of pains and changes in his status were recognized by the attending physician, the statement said.
“These changes warranted a number of tests to be performed to determine the circulation in his leg.
The results were not pleasing to the physician, hence the need for further exploration of the area to verify the cause of the problem,” the statement said. “A successful surgery was performed and the damaged artery and vein, which were earlier detected, were repaired,” the hospital added. Elliot was taken to the High Dependency Unit of the hospital.
CAL has advised that passengers of flight BW 523 and their families wishing to find out more about the counselling programme the airline has offered can send an email to passengercare523@ caribbean-airlines.com. In Guyana, those wishing to speak to a counsellor can call telephone numbers 265-7001/7003 to 7030.
