Fly Jamaica Airlines has been given clearance to move its Boeing 757-200 plane that crash-landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport two Fridays ago.
Director of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Egbert Field in an interview this morning indicated that he has given the airline clearance to move the aircraft from the airport’s tarmac where it crash landed.
The Director explained that permission was given after the investigators, who have been assigned to probe the accident, indicated that they had already taken statements, photographs, and measurements of the plane and its crashed site.
“The airline now has to work out how they will remove the plane from there,” the Director told this news agency. The case is being probed by both local and international investigators.
He reminded that the plane’s black box has already been sent to the United States for decoding. The black box, which is made up of two critical pieces of equipment—the flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder—was sent to the National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB).
The recorders are installed in planes to help reconstruct the events leading to an accident. The Cockpit Voice Recorder records radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit, such as the pilot’s voices and engine noises while the Flight Data Recorder monitors parameters such as altitude, airspeed, and heading.
The Boeing 757-200 plane, destined for Toronto, Canada, included one American, 82 Canadians, 35 Guyanese, one Pakistani and one Trinidadian when it crash landed. One passenger has since lost her life after suffering from a fractured skull.
Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson had confirmed that about 20 minutes after the plane departed Guyana, the pilot reported a hydraulic problem and requested permission to return and land on the airstrip.
Upon landing, the Guyana Standard was told that the plane’s brakes reportedly failed, causing the aircraft to crash land. The investigation into the plane crash is ongoing.
