The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has taken a decision to ground Roraima Airways’ fleet of Trislanders as the agency continues to probe the crash-landing on Saturday morning of one of the planes with five persons aboard.
The plane crash-landed in the vicinity of the Haags Bosch landfill facility on the East Bank of Demerara, raising concerns about what might have gone wrong and the extremely close shave for the two crew and three passengers, one of whom sustained injuries.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, who has responsibility for the aviation sector, last night told this newspaper that subsequent to the crash and the launch of an investigation, he was informed by GCAA’s Director General, Egbert Field that the fleet of three aircraft had been grounded.
Edghill said that the GCAA decision is necessary for inspections to be conducted of the fleet before allowing it to fly.
Touching on the status of the probe involving the aircraft that crash-landed, Edghill said an investigating team returned to the site yesterday and extracted the cargo that was left behind. The Minister explained that the cargo was taken to the Providence Police Station for it to be weighed and lodged as evidence as part of the investigations. He also disclosed that investigators while at the crash site made enquiries about the amount of fuel that was in the aircraft along with other issues.
On this note, the Minister said that there is no preliminary explanation for the crash-landing and investigators are yet to speak with the pilot, co-pilot and passengers. The aircraft was forced to crash-land in a swamp-like area after it reportedly experienced mechanical difficulties.
The crash-landing of the Britten-Norman Trislander bearing registration No. 8R GRE occurred at around 11.30 am as the aircraft was en route to the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, Ogle. It had departed Imbaimadai in Region Seven, around 10.20 am.
A short video of the crash-landing, which was circulated on Facebook and seen by the Sunday Stabroek, showed the plane descending and landing amongst thick vegetation. It remained intact even after it crash-landed.
There were two adult passengers, a two-year-old child and two crew members on board at the time.
Immediately after the incident, a search and rescue operation was activated by the Timehri Control Tower and ranks from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force were mobilized and dispatched to the scene.
The injured persons were transported by a GDF helicopter to Camp Ayanganna and later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital for medical evaluation.
One of the injured persons sustained a broken leg. The injured persons were quickly taken out of the aircraft and placed into GDF’s recently acquired Bell Helicopter and transported to the city.
The crash-landing follows three other aviation incidents recently which are being investigated by the GCAA.
