Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill has ordered that two recent hinterland aircraft accidents be investigated by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), the Department of Public Information (DPI) said today.
The Minister in an interview with DPI said he has also ordered that the operators be served with notices of suspension with immediate effect as two accidents in two days is far too many.
The first accident occurred on Wednesday, when a Cessna Caravan belonging to Jags Aviation of the BK Group of Companies ran off the Eteringbang runway in Region Seven.
A similar incident occurred at the Kamarang airstrip.
“I’ve asked that it must be complied with that whoever is recommended to be the incident/accident investigator must have had no dealings whatsoever with the inspections of these companies’ aircraft. I want to ensure that there is no conflict of interest, and I expect by this afternoon to name the incident/accident investigator in keeping with the Civil Aviation Act”, the minister said.
Referring to the incident at Eteringbang, Edghill told DPI that the investigation will have to take a multi-sectoral approach, including assistance from the Guyana Police Force. The aircraft was discovered to have been carrying mercury, a restricted substance, which the aviation service was not authorised to transport, DPI said. The Minister said the mercury was removed from the aircraft before the inspection was conducted.
“We must be able to confirm how did mercury get on board an aircraft to be transferred to a location, where it was coming from, who are the recipients, why it was removed from the aircraft even before investigations began,” the Minister said.
In relation to the Kamarang accident, the Minister said news of a disintegrated propeller is shocking, and begs the question of maintenance.
“So, the officers of the GCAA who were responsible for inspecting and authorising these aircraft to be operated based upon their maintenance and servicing compliance responsibilities would also come up for scrutiny because these are very serious issues”, Edghill told DPI
