Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 28, 2016 News
The fact that two planes, in the centre of a court battle, were flown out of Guyana’s jurisdiction without official authorization, is causing much concern for Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan.
The Minister said that the incident is symptomatic of a major security lapse.
He stated that what the willful breach of the Eugene F. Correia airport rules and regulations shows is that the airport has some vulnerability. He said that this is due to the fact that there was no integration with Civil Aviation and the airport security.
“To get airplanes (subject to an injunction), which have not delivered their flight plans, removed from that airport signals to me tremendous vulnerabilities to the extent that you could have had airplanes, easily leaving that airport with a lot of gold, a lot of narcotics, and the people just didn’t know how to stop them.”
“It is very embarrassing to the security sector and it is something that we have to remedy immediately,” he said. “You recall that we have had huge amounts of gold leaving the country, drop offs at airstrips with narcotics and then being taken overseas.”
“If we could have, at 4 o’clock in the morning, airplanes leaving like that, I don’t know what else could have been happening there. This only came to my attention as a result of Nigel Hughes calling me and informing me that planes have left in violation of certain injunctions and rules of that airport.”
“(Minister of Public Infrastructure) David Patterson has (spoken of) an inquiry and that is probably what I would (want) too.”He indicated that the inquiry would also shed some light on whether things like this have happened in the past.”
He noted that he was under the impression that an airplane could only take off when certain stringent measures were in place. With the removal of the planes, however, Ramjattan pointed out that this had hit him as a surprise.
The Minister also indicated that collusion within the airport and the pilots who left with the aircraft was a strong possibility.
“I indicated to them that it had to be some dereliction of duty or collusion. Of course it was not from the Civil Aviation Department. We don’t want to place blame yet, but it is important when these things happen to get all the facts and I suspect to get all the facts through an inquiry.”
He noted that a large scale CoI that would cost a lot of money was not necessary, but that a one-man commission that could report its findings within two to three weeks might be more appropriate.
He noted, however, that it would be under the aegis of Minister Patterson, but that he would give him whatever support he needed.
Two aircrafts, one reportedly subject to High Court litigation, were flown out of the jurisdiction via the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, Ogle, early Saturday morning, under questionable circumstances.
This publication was able to confirm that the two Cessna 206 Aircraft, bearing registration numbers 8R-GTP and 8R-GMP attached to Oxford Aviation, left the airport some time around 4am.
According to reports, one of the aircraft was flown out of the country by its owner, Munidat Persaud, alias Raj Persaud, the owner of the Aviation Company who also owns and operates a flight school in the United States. The other pilot was not identified.
According to a source, the aircraft were flown to Trinidad then to the island of Grenada, from where they subsequently departed for Anguilla.
Minister Patterson, when contacted in the wake of the incident, had stated that an investigation was launched and the foreign authorities were also notified.
“We have notified the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and all the regional airports but that’s the most we can do at the moment. My primary concern is if any of the procedures and protocols was breached on our side.”
The Minister said that the Director General of the GCCA has been advised that employees who were “around” at the time, be sent on administrative leave so that a thorough investigation can be conducted.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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