WHEN JAMAICAN Prime Minister Bruce Golding charged that a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) aircraft was “harassed” at Grantley Adams International Airport and he and Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister would be speaking to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, the well known regional mantra “if you have cocoa in sun, look for rain” sprung to mind.
My initial reaction was to ask if he was picking a fight against the background of continuing frustration of efforts by Barbadian-based low budget airline REDjet to fly into Jamaica and the incendiary Shanique Myrie affair which generated impassioned reaction and which, when we last heard, was being pursued at the diplomatic level.
There is bewilderment that following a frenetic round of caucuses and Prime Minister Stuart’s acknowledgement of receiving a report on the matter, the public is no wiser as to factual findings or the outcome of investigations into subsequent reports by other Jamaicans of alleged harassment at our airport.
When Mr Golding categorized the aircraft as “harassed”, snidely enlisting the emotive buzz word, it seemed somewhat strange since an aircraft is inanimate and there were no reports of action against crew or passengers. Bizarrely, Starcom News also humanized the aircraft, saying it was “accosted”, an excursion into what iconic journalists of yore called “catwire”.
The action taken by airport authorities on the flight en route from Kingston to Piarco was a perfectly legitimate “ramp check”, fully within their sovereign prerogative within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which governs the mandated procedures and oversight of commercial airlines globally.
These checks are carried out routinely around the world and relate to aircraft documentation, on-board equipment such as navigation, anti-collision, ground-proximity warning, safety equipment, licences, log books and personnel checks. For example, aircraft flying European Union skies undergo relatively frequent checks.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) determined that in the era of heightened surveillance following 9/11, random ramp checks should increase. Indeed, as Mr Golding vociferous protests Barbadian authorities pursuing internationally mandated activities, he should be reminded that not long ago the FAA unearthed maintenance-related infractions in routine ramp checks on state-owned Air Jamaica aircraft on American soil, levying millions of dollars in fines.
He would hardly forget since debt settlement remains with his government after Caribbean Airlines’ recent takeover of Air Jamaica. It is left to be seen if there is disclosure of the findings on the ramp
checks about which Mr Golding doth protest so much and which, there is no reason to doubt, were carried out in good faith and not as some illusionary retaliation for dilatory processing REDjet’s application.
With a paltry 16 per cent shareholding in Caribbean Airlines, it beggars belief that he is making so much noise when neither the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago with an 84 per cent equity nor her normally verbose Minister of Works and Transport, beleaguered Jack Warner, has said anything.
Do they know something that Mr Golding does not, or is there something more in his mortar than the pestle?
In his mouthings he let slip that REDjet’s delay has groundings in protecting the interest of Caribbean Airlines which rescued bankrupt Air Jamaica when no one else was prepared to offer the “love birds” a lifeline, proof positive that his cocoa (CAL) was in the sun and rain (REdjet) threatened.
His gratitude to CARICOM kith ’n’ kin is commendable, but unlike Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica is not a signatory to the CARICOM Multilateral Air Services Agreement. That notwithstanding, Jamaicans, like people all over the region hostage to high-priced, monopolistic LIAT and CAL, welcome enthusiastically REDjet’s low fares boosting inter-regional travel. Anything thwarting fulfilment of that felt need will, inter alia, hardly be electorally enhancing.
In the wake of last year’s notorious “Dudus” Coke affair, Mr Golding’s political reputation plummeted nationally, regionally and internationally. With the commission’s report on that matter scheduled to be laid in parliament imminently, it was therefore not surprising that he invoked an external bogeyman, a well established diversionary technique, fully conscious that these days Barbados is a popular whipping boy in Jamaica.
As I said, I have no idea of the ramp check findings and whether they will be publicly disclosed.
I am sure, however, that at the level of heads of government Mr Stuart will not resile from defending Barbados’ best interest against his counterpart’s harangue across the Caribbean Sea.
Finally, a caution to the REDjet honchos. It is imperative to win friends and influence important people to get off the ground. Daily diatribes are counterproductive. You can be delayed, but not denied. The travelling public is on your side. Be punctilious in your preparations and operations so that should there be an epidemic of tit-for-tat ramp checks, you are never found wanting.
• Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat. Email ppksimmons@hotmail.com