Businessman and aircraft pilot Gerry Goveia has told Stabroek Business that the worst possible response that can come from the Caribbean in the wake of last Saturday’s Caribbean Airlines crash upon landing at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri is to seek to definitively attribute blame ahead of “an official technical report” on the incident.
“We have to wait for the report before we can pronounce with any certainty on what happened,” Goveia told Stabroek Business. Otherwise, apportioning blame will damage confidence in the regional aviation industry and could very well affect visitor arrivals,” Goveia said.
This newspaper has already received information from a local travel agency of some cancellations of flights to Georgetown in the wake of the incident and when asked whether he was aware of this Goveia said that that was not an issue on which he was inclined to speak at this time. “Frankly, I’d rather deal with the steps that we need to take to manage what is in fact a challenge not only for Guyana but also for the rest of the Caribbean as well,” Goveia declared.
The veteran aircraft pilot made no secret of his “irritation” over reports emanating from Trinidad and Tobago that appeared to attribute the cause of the accident to problems associated with what he described as “circumstances and facilities” at Timehri. And Goveia said that he was even more surprised over what appeared to be views being expressed by professional aviators that seemed to insinuate that there was something wrong with Timehri. “What amazes me is that if indeed such pronouncements are being made by aviation professionals, they of all people should know that Timehri does not set its own standards. The standards, the requirements are set by a certified international body and if there was the slightest doubt about those standards no airline, not Caribbean Airlines, not Delta, not REDjet… no international carrier would be allowed to operate here. Apart from the fact that any insinuations about conditions at Timehri would be unsustainable, the fact of the matter is that it is not for those who are making pronouncements to determine those standards”.
And according to Goveia the fact that Timehri was operating again and receiving international flights within hours of the Caribbean Airlines incident was ”surely proof enough” that those who were seeking to “put the blame on Timehri” knew little about what they were talking about.. “Had there been the slightest doubt about the suitability of Timehri nothing would be allowed to land here. That is not something that we have any control over,” he added.
Asked to comment on whether he expected that the incident might affect visitor arrivals to Guyana and could impact on the tourism industry, Goveia said that while aircraft accidents usually affected some travellers and potential travellers negatively, it was the responsibility of regional governments and the aviation sector to work together to deal with the challenge of sustaining confidence in the safety of airline travel. “There is a whole body of knowledge, a whole body of experience in handling incidents of this kind and it is the responsibility of we in the Caribbean to embrace that knowledge to ensure that we minimize its impact on the travelling public. It should not be forgotten that Caribbean Airlines itself has an excellent safety record apart from which airline travel on the whole is safe.”
According to Goveia what makes it even more imperative that we adopt a regional approach to what was, in fact, “a regional incident,” was, “first, the fact, that such incidents have not been common to the region and, secondly, that this has occurred at a time when intra-regional travel for business and for leisure” has become of critical importance to the economies of the Caribbean. “This is clearly neither the right time nor the right situation in which to apportion blame. In fact, it is the apportioning of blame rather than the incident itself that could impact on intra-regional travel and on the economies of Caribbean countries,” Goveia said. Goveia has himself ruled out weather conditions at Timehri or “any technical or physical situation” at the airport to which the accident can be attributed. As aviation professionals we can analyse the incident and discuss its likely causes but the responsible thing to do is to wait for the report before we begin to make definitive pronouncements,” Goveia added.
