Flights to Port Kaituma have again been suspended after residents cut a newly repaired fence and cows were back on the airstrip.
An official at Trans Guyana Airways (TGA) told Stabroek News yesterday that in the interest of safety, they have suspended flights to the aerodrome until the issue with the cows is resolved. An inspector from the Ministry of Works is expected to travel to the airfield today and the TGA official said that once an assurance is given that the problem is fixed, flights will resume.
A TGA Cessna Caravan narrowly escaped a collision with a cow while landing there on Wednesday morning. At around 8:05am that day, the plane with 16 passengers onboard was completing its landing roll at the aerodrome, when a cow suddenly dashed across the path of the aircraft. The pilot was forced to take evasive action. Several other cows were being taken across the runway at the time by a resident, Stabroek News was told.
Personnel from SkyWest repaired the fence the day after but persons living around the airstrip later cut the fence and when two flights arrived there yesterday, attendants had to chase cows off the airstrip. Subsequent flights were cancelled. “We don’t feel that the issue was resolved,” the TGA official told Stabroek News.
Air Services Limited and SkyWest Charter Services – which uses TGA planes – operate daily flights to Port Kaituma. Yesterday, six flights were scheduled but only two landed. Normally, there are between four to six flights to the airstrip per day but sometimes as much as eight flights.
Yesterday, residents told Stabroek News that cows on the runway was a longstanding issue and numerous complaints had been made to government officials and police but nothing was done. An official at SkyWest said that they had repaired the barbed wire fence but by yesterday morning, residents had opened it up. “When we repairing the fence, the people who living at the side of the airstrip said they will cut it and we wasting our time,” the official said. “We been complaining a long time about the cows and the police ain’t doing anything about it,” he added.
Circle
Many residents use the runway as an access way to their homes. One resident said that they themselves had repaired the road around the airstrip but heavy vehicles damaged it. She said that those living around the airstrip were being blamed unfairly and the real issue was the cows.
This newspaper was told that the persons who owned the cows do not live around the airstrip. “From the time I living [by] the airstrip, cows is the problem all the time,” the woman said. She has lived there for ten years. “Sometimes the plane does got to circle, three, four times before the cows move,” she said. “The cows is the problem.”
One official said that, in the past, they had argued that residents should not be allowed to live so close to the airstrip but the authorities did not heed the advice. Now, persons are residing as little as 300 feet away from the centre of the airstrip. The official said that several meetings had also been held with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and they had asked for a plot of land for a communal pasture for the district, but to date they have heard nothing about it. “People seem to be taking these things very lightly,” the official said. He said that they had also asked for the road around the airstrip to be repaired to provide access but the request is yet to be acceded to.
Residents expressed fear that it will take a disaster for the authorities to pay attention. “They ain’t doing the cow owners dem nothing,” said one resident. “When you report the matter, nobody ain’t looking in your concern.”
There are many cuts in the fence and many residents use these, not only those who live around the airstrip, one resident said.
The police on Thursday, after the fence was repaired, held a meeting with residents on the damage that was being done but by yesterday, again, there was damage.
Residents said that repairs to the road surrounding the airstrip would provide an alternative access but pleas to have it repaired are not being heard.
Some self-help work on the road was done yesterday but there is a patch where there is a swamp and there are not many places where residents can walk, this newspaper was told.
Residents said that the flights are vital to the economic activity of the community – which has seen a boom from gold mining – and they called for the issue at the airstrip to be urgently resolved.
