Four years after reports of the sighting of an abandoned helicopter on Mount Ayanganna, there has been no word from the past or present government on any reports or investigation to determine how the chopper got there.
Sources have told this newspaper that the chopper is one of two that came into the country after allegedly being stolen from the Venezuelan military in 2018. It was related that the chopper crashed on the mountain in Region Seven.
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill when contacted, stated that he was unaware of such reports. He pointed out he was not in government during the period the incident occurred.
In 2018, now opposition member David Patterson functioned as the Minister of Public Infrastructure, with responsibility for the aviation sector.
When Stabroek News spoke to Patterson, he said he could not recall any reports of any crash at the Ayanganna Mountain during his tenure.
“I never knew of this helicopter, no application was ever submitted… hence I would assume the operators of this helicopter would not have wanted an incident – accident most importantly, whatsoever reported,” Patterson explained.
Stabroek News had reported in November last year on the alleged second helicopter being stored in a Roraima Airways hangar in 2021.
National Security Advisor and former Roraima Airways Chief Executive Officer, Gerry Gouveia, had told the Stabroek News in an interview what while he was aware that the aircraft came into the country around 2016 or 2017, it had been parked at the Guyana Defence Force hangar at Timehri until its handler, Michael Brassington, last year asked his son for it to be stored at Ogle.
Edghill, who is also responsible for the aviation sector, at the time of that report had told Stabroek News that information associated with the registration of the helicopter had been handed over by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), which is investigating the case.
“There is a claim that a helicopter was stolen from the Venezuelan military and found in a hangar at Roraima… SOCU had written requesting that a number of persons be interviewed and documents be provided. We are in full compliance with the investigations,” Edghill, who has responsibility for the aviation sector, told the Sunday Stabroek when contacted
“The names of all personnel responsible for the registration [of the helicopter were] handed over…,” he added.
The minister’s update came in response to questions posed by this newspaper to Gouveia, who has distanced himself from the case.
In early October, sources told this newspaper that a complaint was made to Guyanese authorities that a helicopter stolen from Venezuela was parked in a hangar at Ogle. It triggered an investigation by SOCU, which Edghill said was still ongoing.
Asked about the issue, Gouveia said that while he was in charge of Roraima Airways at the time the helicopter first came into the country and was registered, his son, Gerry Gouveia Jr, also an executive of the company, had asked that it be parked there for his friend Michael Brassington.
“So Michael Brassington is a person who was actually managing what was going on with that machine. All we did was to give the aircraft parking,” he said.
