The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE suspect that a disgruntled worker may be responsible for planting two “explosive caps” in the middle of the runway at Mayaguana Airport on Sunday.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson confirmed to The Tribune yesterday that police are investigating the possibility that an employee, who was working on the Mayaguana runway, may have planted the explosives.

“We are investigating many different angles, but we have heard that and are investigating that,” he said, responding to questions from The Tribune. “We are following that angle and looking into it.”

On Sunday, police in Mayaguana went to the airport after receiving anonymous information that persons had been seen tampering with the runway. When they arrived they discovered someone had removed the portable solar lights and drilled a hole in the runway to place the explosive caps.

Fortunately, ACP Ferguson said, the blasting caps alone could not have caused an explosion. “That is not the way those devices work,” he said. “What was there could not have formed or caused an explosion, the caps do not function like that. You need other parts to cause an explosion.”

A team of officers from New Providence is in Mayaguana conducting interviews and searching for suspects. No one is in custody.

The Mayaguana Airport reopened to commercial carriers and planes over 6,000lbs in April. The opening came a year after an aircraft, forced to make a risky midnight landing, crashed into a truck, setting it on fire and killing its three occupants.

The truck was being used to light the runway for the plane to land because there were no night lights at the airport. Two months after the tragedy, permanent solar lights were purchased and installed at the airport.