Plane’s brake system was not functional

(Trinidad Guardian) A pre­lim­i­nary re­port has shown that the brak­ing sys­tem on the Caribbean Airlines Limited’s (CAL) ATR air­craft was not func­tion­al at the time the air­craft col­lid­ed with a wall at Pi­ar­co Airport on Wednes­day, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said on Friday.

And he was al­so un­able to say if the per­son steer­ing the air­craft from the air­port ramp to a hangar when the in­ci­dent oc­curred at 11.15 pm, was cer­ti­fied to do so.

Im­bert gave the ex­pla­na­tions in Par­lia­ment, re­spond­ing to Op­po­si­tion queries on the ac­ci­dent. He stressed it was not a “crash” as the Op­po­si­tion called it.

CAL has said the air­craft was be­ing tax­ied from the ramp to an air­craft hangar when the in­ci­dent happened. The air­craft was not in ac­tive ser­vice and there were no pas­sen­gers or crew aboard. It was with­drawn from ser­vice and a probe start­ed.