A report on the investigations being undertaken into July’s crash-landing of a Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri may be completed in another three months.
According to a report which appeared in the Trinidad Newsday daily newspaper on Friday, Director General of Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority, Ramesh Lutchmedial, said simulations are being undertaken to determine what happened on that fateful morning of July 31 when the aircraft broke in two after lading at Timehri. The aircraft which was one of the newer ones on the fleet of CAL was registered in Trinidad and Tobago.
Lutchmedial said the simulations that were done were based on data retrieved from the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). The aircraft touched down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in rainy conditions, overshot the runway and split in two on stopping. While there were no fatalities, several persons sustained injuries, including one major injury.
At present, the investigations were moving apace in record time, Lutchmedial said. “We are hoping,” he said, “that within the next three months we would have the report ready.” He added, “We’re in the process of doing very detailed analyses of the simulations. Once the analyses are completed we would start drawing conclusions, and then write the report.”
The investigation into the incident is being led by the local regulatory body the, Guyana Civil Aviation Authority with assistance from the US National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB).
A source within the GCAA told this newspaper recently that the body, with assistance from the NTSB is compiling a preliminary report into the incident which is expected to be presented to Transport Minister Robeson Benn.
