Parts of the Piper Aztec twin engine plane, which crashed into and destroyed the home of 69-year-old Florence Tyndall at Sparendaam, remain in Guyana today more than two weeks after GCAA officials said they were to be shipped to the US to be examined.
In the light of the pace with which the investigation is moving, Kit Nascimento, in his capacity as a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG), said that he had written a letter to the President voicing the body’s concern on the state of investigations.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Monday, Director of Air Safety at the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) Paula McAdam confirmed that the parts, inclusive of the engines salvaged from the wreckage, were still in a sterilised facility under lock and key to prevent contamination.
On April 14, the day after the crash, McAdam had said that the GCAA would be sending the parts to the United States (US) to be examined by the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB). She said contact with the body would have been established later in that week to determine specifics, such as whether the parts would be shipped via sea or air.
McAdam said that once talks were completed the parts would have most likely been shipped by Friday, April 19.
On April 19, calls to McAdam revealed that the parts had not been shipped. She said that though talks with the NTSB were ongoing, the engines and other parts remained in a sterile condition under lock and key.
She added that the crates in which the parts were to be shipped were, up to last Friday, still being constructed.
She also said that the engines would be sent to Lycoming Engines, where they were manufactured, to be examined by the NTSB to determine if engine trouble was to blame for the plane crash. Lycoming is a major US manufacturer of civilian aircraft engines.
On Monday McAdam once again confirmed that the parts still had not been shipped and was unable to say exactly when the parts would be shipped.
Calls to both McAdam and GCAA Director General yesterday went unanswered.
