The report into the incident where the tail section of a parked Fly Jamaica airplane was knocked off by a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) aircraft as it was pulling into the apron last month is not yet completed.
“The investigation is still ongoing…the Accident Investigation Group (AIG) is actively proceeding with that investigation and I am sure they will be putting out a report shortly,” Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Egbert Fields, told a press conference on Wednesday.
He informed the media that when completed, the report will be handed over to Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure Annette Ferguson, since the aviation sector falls under her portfolio.
And while the Accident Investigation Group was over the years closely linked to the GCAA, it had been recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) that this should not be the case, and he has acted upon this recommendation.
However, support from the GCCA is still being given to the probing agency.
“As you know, as recommended by ICAO, the Accident Investigation shouldn’t really be on the Civil Aviation Authority. For years it has been with the Civil Aviation Authority, and we are now in the process and finalization of working on the delinking of the group from the Civil Aviation Authority,” the GCAA head explained.
“The Accident Investigation Group is headed by Ms Paula McAdam, and they now report directly to the Minister, the Civil Aviation offers the support that resides here, in terms of operation work for air worthiness and so forth, but the group is separate from the Civil Aviation Authority, with its own Act to be passed soon,” he added.
On November 29th of this year, a CAL aircraft clipped the tail of a parked Fly Jamaica airplane as it was pulling into the CJIA apron.
“You had the Fly Jamaica plane on the apron, and CAL was coming in and the right wing of their plane would have clipped the Fly Jamaica aircraft…I have been advised by the Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority that they were down at the airport, and a probe has been launched,” Junior Minister Annette Ferguson, who is responsible for the aviation sector, had explained at the time of the incident.
No one was injured and all passengers onboard the flight were able to leave for their respective destinations with their luggage.
CAL is also conducting its own separate probe. CAL’s team out of Trinidad arrived in Guyana the same day, and started gathering its information, but no word of that report has been made public either.
This newspaper understands that from preliminary investigations conducted on the day of the incident, the “brunt of the blame went to the “wing walkers” or aircraft marshallers that give the visuals for the pilots on the ground.”
However, an official of the CJIA said that, “plenty people being blamed, and it is complicated,” although the official would not go into the details.
One source said that CAL, “will have to take as much blame as the wing walkers,” because Fly Jamaica had already been parked in their assigned spot by the aircraft marshallers.
Fly Jamaica has since had to resort to rental of another aircraft, and has been able to get their passengers to their respective destinations during this holiday peak season.
