NEW YORK – Guyanese here are expressing concerns about airport and airplane safety in travelling on Caribbean Airlines to Guyana, a day after one of its airliners slid off the runway in wet weather as it landed and broke in two, resulting in a few broken limbs.
Flight BW523, a Boeing 737-800, careered off the tarmac and halted metres away from a deep ravine off the Cheddi Jagan International Airport-Timehri about 1:25 on Saturday morning. The plane’s cockpit and first class cabin broke off from the rest of the fuselage in the crash in what’s being called a “miracle crash”.
The crash has marred one of the most flawless records in the history aviation safety, going back to Caribbean Airlines’ predecessor BWIA, which never lost passenger, crew or plane since it began regular flights as the English-speaking Caribbean’s first indigenous airline in 1940.
Dr Juliet Emanuel, who teaches development skills at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, was concerned about the safety of night landings at the airport at Timehri, 37 kilometres (23 miles) southwest of the capital, after her initial shock gave way to relief on hearing no one was killed.
“What concerns me is the safety of the airport and the need for a better airport,” she told the Caribbean Media Corporation.
Rickford Burke, president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean-Guyana Institute for Democracy, said Guyana was in “desperate need of a modern, state-of-the art, world-class international airport that can comfortably accommodate modern aircraft, as well as a world class emergency response system.
He told CMC: “I hope that a product of the investigation will not only be a review of what caused this incident but also serious recommendations on how Guyana can upgrade its airport facilities, and emergency response and disaster preparedness system to meet international standards.”
Another Guyanese immigrant here feared for a mission of 25 doctors and educators she planned to lead to her homeland on the same flight on August 4 for a ten-day trip.
“Even though it is not clear what were the conditions leading up to the crash, I am very perturbed,” said Dr Janice Emanuel-Bunn of the Brooklyn, New York-based organization Action, Performance Commitment Community Services (APC).
She also questioned the maintenance of the CAL jets, the experience of its pilots and whether they had adequate rests between flights.
In spite of “this tragic development”, she said her team was still committed to traveling to Guyana to provide free medical clinics and conduct training sessions.
Another academic, Dr Yvonne Peters, an assistant professor in English at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York (CUNY), who will also be part of the medical mission, said she, too, was deeply troubled on learning about the CAL crash.
“I was shocked,” she said. “I’ve travelled to Guyana when the weather was bad, but I’m very thankful that there were no fatalities.
“My heart goes out to those people who are hurt,” she added.
“I hope that whatever is lacking, in terms of safety, the government will do something – will review and put in place what needs to be done,” Dr Peters continued.
Franklyn Rodney, a Guyanese-born guidance counsellor at a school in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, offered a more philosophical perspective.
“It’s unfortunate, but these things do happen in life,” Rodney told CMC. “The good thing is that there are no fatalities. So that’s a blessing in itself.”
Back in New York, Flight 523 passenger Gary Rozario, 41, said the first thing he heard when the flight touched down in Guyana was a bone-chilling boom – followed seconds later by the terrified voice of his seven-year-old daughter Alyssa.
“She was screaming, ‘Daddy! Daddy! I don’t want to die’,” Rozario, who lives in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, told reporters here.’
“All I was thinking was that me and my daughter could die right now,” added Rozario, stating that he watched in disbelief as the Caribbean Airlines flight cracked in two just four rows in front of them.
He said his seat in Row 21 snapped free after the plane’s front wheel broke off, sending the Boeing 737-800 skidding to a stop just short of a 200-foot deep ravine.
“People were screaming, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God’!” Rozario recounted.
“There was no chute coming from the plane, everyone had to jump,” he added. “Everyone was screaming, scrambling, cursing at each other trying to get off the plane. It was horrific.”
Officials in Guyana have confirmed that most of the serious injuries occurred as people jumped from the plane.
Rozario said he injured his knees and his hands, and limped two miles while lugging his rattled daughter back to the terminal. He said his daughter hurt her neck and ribs in the wreck.
“She doesn’t want to go back on a plane to New York,” he said. “I’m scared, too, but I can’t let her know that.”
A team of eight investigators from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived in Guyana on Sunday to join investigators from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, the airline’s base, to probe the crash.
Flight BW523 originated from New York, with connections to Florida and Port-of-Spain, and was originally due in Guyana at 9.45 on Friday night. (CMC)
