It must have been extremely frightening for those people travelling on Caribbean Airlines Flight (CAL) 523 from New York. I don’t mean when the actual crash took place because that was bad enough.
What must have been even more scary was the arrival of the Prime Minister (PM) of Trinidad and Tobago (TNT), Kamla Persad-Bissessar, accompanied by her Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Information, Dr Surujrattan Rambachan, her Minister of Transport Devant Maharaj, the chairman of CAL, George Nicholas, and sundry other peripheral functionaries as well as the few people who actually and rightly should have been there to investigate the incident.
Minister of Works Jack Warner, who recently had the responsibility for Transport in TNT, was conspicuously absent. He complained to a journalist that he was out of the “loop”, an acrobatic aeronautical manoeuvre which hopefully the airplane was not engaged in at the time in question.
One unkind person snidely remarked that it is ironic now that Jack is out of football, he has set himself some big goals, one of which is to become Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
In the meantime, the cynics say, Jack is busily engaged with his legal staff in trying to make a case that the “air-bridge” between Trinidad and Tobago, like all other bridges in the twin-island republic, should be under his ministry. Using this as a precedent, he might well be able to justify a claim that the Trinidad/Guyana connection is also an air-bridge and within his jurisdiction.
However, it might be a ferry tale.
One can imagine the strain on the poor folk who, in pitch darkness, climbed over the wreckage of their airplane while trying to save themselves and/or their loved ones only to experience the predatory behaviour of some Guyanese humanitarians who charged for transport from the crash site to the terminal, and had to watch firemen standing idly by while the rest of the officials were behaving like headless chickens.
Only an absolute sadist or the worst kind of publicity seeker would subject them to the full-Monty of political posturing, panoply and pappy-show. It was the second time in just a few hours when their cheers turned to screams (or so the talk goes).
Again, my cynical Trinidadian friends had their say. “I heard one of the people knew the PM is a lawyer so he asked her to represent him against CAL and she answered: ‘Ah can’t do that’ and he answered: ‘Well, what you doing here then?’”
Surely, this did not really happen, but then another friend said: “You know people have been questioning the legitimacy of Dr Rambachan’s PhD.
So when he went to meet the crash victims he introduced himself as “Dr” Rambachan and people thought he was a real doctor. One man say: ‘Doc, ah have ah pain in my neck still, please help me.’ Then Rambachan had to explain he was not a medical doctor and the man steups and turn over.”
I laughed and told my friend that I am sure this did not happen but then my friend added a postscript.
He chuckled: “What the injured man really said is that he is better off than the TNT PM because his pain was only in his neck . . . . ”
What really put some people in a tailspin was what some have deemed to be an unseemly diplomatic squabble between Georgetown and Port-of-Spain, essentially between the Guyana President, Bharrat Jagdeo, and the TNT PM on whether the severed tail of the airplane should remain where it was or should be removed.
A Guyana aviation official was quoted as saying that the protruding tail would shorten the usable length of the runway by 500 feet. The Transport Minister, Robeson Benn, said that the tail would be removed to make the runway safe, a decision which he insisted was taken in consultation with experts. The Guyana president, who had met with the TNT PM after she ended her visit to the three passengers who were hospitalised, acknowledged that he had not discussed the matter of the tail with Mrs Persad-Bissessar because he did not think it was a matter for politicians.
However, the Trinidad PM said that as a lawyer she preferred to go with her gut and believed that despite the all-clear from the local investigators, the Guyanese should not haul the tail away but leave it for the investigating United States team to decide.
Tony Deyal was last seen saying that the TNT PM’s determination to go with her gut might be appropriate for judging a culinary competition but when you’re dealing with highly technical issues it is best to keep your tail quiet.