On the 14th of this month a Cessna Caravan belonging to Jags Aviation of the BK Group ran off the runway in Eteringbang, Region Seven. The following day there was another incident, this time at Kamarang Airstrip in the same region involving a propeller which disintegrated on take-off. Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill wasted no time in exerting what he presumed to be his authority in response to what had happened.
On July 16th he ordered that the two accidents be investigated by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, and that the operators of the aircraft be served with notices of suspension with immediate effect because two accidents in the space of two days was far too many. His intentions were communicated to the public through the agency of the DPI, which went on to quote him as saying: “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.”
Where the Eteringbang incident was concerned, the Minister was reported as indicating that the investigation would have to take a multi-sectoral approach, including obtaining assistance from the police. He went on to comment that the aircraft had been carrying mercury which it was not authorised to transport, and that the substance had been removed from the plane before the inspection. Warming to his topic he adopted a supposedly forensic posture, being quoted by the DPI as saying: “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.”
As far as the Kamarang plane was concerned, the Minister observed that the news of a disintegrated propeller was shocking, and raised questions of maintenance with implications for the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority. “So, the officers of the GCAA,” he said, “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.”
If the Minister thought that this made him appear as if he was in control and on top of his portfolio, he was to be disabused of that idea a few days later. The Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana in a release expressed shock at the intervention and statements by Minister Edghill, as well it might, since standard procedures are in existence and have been for a long time in relation to the investigation of aircraft accidents. It does not require the ‘order’ of a politician to set the process in motion.
Neither is it for the Minister to lay down the parameters of an investigation as he did in this instance. “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 …” He is right that there should be no conflict of interest, but why should he treat the civil aviation authority like a schoolchild before it has recommended anybody to head the inquiry? If they do put forward someone who does not fulfil the requirements of impartiality, then that is the time for intervention.
Then there was the matter of the transportation of mercury which the AOAG pointed out to Mr Edghill all the major aircraft operators were certified to carry. They had to undergo “a rigorous process” the statement said, to qualify to carry “dangerous goods like mercury, gasoline and diesel.”
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the aircraft owners’ attention was drawn to a particular decision of the Minister whereby he jumped to conclusions even before an inquiry had got underway. As mentioned earlier he “ordered that the operators be served with notices of suspension with immediate effect.” Not only is this to pre-empt an investigation, it is also to presume knowledge of the facts of the case in circumstances where on the face of it, at least, the two accidents have entirely different characteristics. His declared reason for this decision, namely, that two incidents in the space of two days was far too many, simply defies logic.
The Association laid emphasis on this country’s aviation safety record, which it said was one of the highest in the region, in circumstances where the industry operated out of the busiest airport in the region as well as in “an extremely challenging and hostile hinterland aviation environment with minimum infrastructural support”. It also raised the question of the hinterland airstrips, whose rehabilitation in the past had been frequently substandard and carried out by unqualified and incompetent contractors. One of the strips it specifically mentioned was that at Eteringbang. This is such a critical landing strip since it serves the security forces protecting the Cuyuni frontier, that one would have thought the authorities would have paid far more attention to it than they have done over the years.
It seems that the government is going to rehabilitate twenty-one airstrips which is something the Association has welcomed, but it has requested it be afforded the opportunity to work with the Ministry on implementing the programme, so the strips among various other things, will comply with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards. Hopefully, the Minister will accede to this, since the condition of airstrips has been a factor in some previous air accidents.
Perhaps when the Minister weighed in prematurely on the subject of the recent aviation accidents where, it must be emphasised, no one was injured, he had an inchoate thought in his mind about the perceived objectivity of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority in relation to investigations. If he had, then the solution to the problem is not ministerial intervention; in fact what is required in such situations is less ministerial interference so that professional bodies can do the job they were set up to do without looking over their shoulder in case of political repercussions.
What may be required in answer to such concerns is what was recommended at a local conference on aviation safety held in 2017, viz. that there should be a complete separation between the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and the investigation unit. That would answer far more satisfactorily Mr Edghill’s anxieties about conflict of interest than his direct interference could ever do. Among many other things the conference recommended that reports on aircraft accidents should be made publicly available without the need for ministerial approval in the interests of safety as well as transparency. The Minister might like to look at the proposals and discuss them with the various stakeholders, including the Association, in the interest of improving aviation safety. He cannot achieve anything on the basis of unilateral decisions.
