The plane that crashed on the West Bank Demerara on Monday evening had reported a fuel emergency, according to the civil aviation authority and rescuers from the army had to cut through thick vegetation to get to the site.
Guyana Adventist Medical Aviation Services (GAMAS) Pilot, Lincoln Gomez and policeman, constable Michael Grimmond suffered injuries in the crash and both have been hospitalized. The single-engine Cessna had been transporting the body of US missionary, Christopher Matthews who had died earlier in the day in a climbing accident at Arau in Region Seven.
A statement from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) yesterday said that its Inspectors had visited the site of the crash, close to the Canal Number 2 Conservancy area, as investigations get underway.
GCAA said that based on the Preliminary Report, the aircraft bearing registration number N8704T, owned and operated by GAMAS, departed Arau in Region Seven at 17:06h on February 18, 2019, destined for the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at Ogle. It said that the Guyanese pilot, Captain Gomez, made a Mayday call to the Timehri Control Tower reporting a fuel emergency around 6.45 pm. The aircraft subsequently went down with the pilot, Grimmond and the remains of Matthews.
“Constable Grimmond called via cell phone and reported that both himself and the pilot were injured, but could not confirm their location”, the release said.
It added that the Aeronautical Search and Rescue Coordination Centre at Timehri was activated and the following agencies responded; the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Guyana Police Force (GPF), the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), GCAA, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA). The release said that the crash site was identified by a reconnaissance flight conducted by a Roraima Airways aircraft as a result of Gomez firing one of his distress flares from his location.
It added that the first responder team from the GDF landed as close as possible to the crash site. “Due to the conditions of the terrain, the rescue team had to trek for more than an hour cutting through thick vegetation to reach the crash site from the landing zone. The rescue team recovered the injured pilot and his passenger, and after stabilizing them, returned to the landing zone for evacuation with the Bell 206 helicopter. The injured were flown to Camp Ayanganna and subsequently transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation via an ambulance which was on standby. However, the body of the deceased could not be removed from the site during the first extraction due to constraints of terrain and weight”, the statement said.
On the ground the GDF, the GPF, the GFS, the CDC, NDIA and the GCAA were mobilized at the Canal Number 2 Conservancy to be deployed for the rescue mission.
The release said that the Guyana Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation Unit will examine all possible factors that could have contributed to this accident. Meanwhile,
yesterday, the Guyana Police Welfare Officer, Deputy Superintendent Jewel Sullivan along with Public Relations Officer (PRO) Superintendent Jairam Ramlakhan, his deputy Cadet Officer Ike Grandison and other members of the GPF on behalf of the Commissioner of Police and Senior Administration team visited constable 21380 Grimmond. A release from the police force said that they wished him a speedy recovery while commending his bravery and heroism after the single-engine Cessna plane crash- landed.
The rank who is in high spirits, is currently warded at the St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital suffering from multiple fractures and lacerations about the body, the release said.
