The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

ONE day after a private aircraft crash landed at Lynden Pindling International Airport, Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar is underscoring the airport's safety as well as the fact that it has "contingency plans" in place to swiftly tackle such matters.

Noting LPIA is currently down to one runway while its secondary runway is being resurfaced, Mr D'Aguilar estimated this will be the case until "sometime in November".

Two men escaped injury during Saturday's crash landing. Shortly after 4.30pm, the private aircraft, en route from Pompano Beach, Florida to Nassau made an emergency landing at LPIA.

Two pilots, one American and one Bahamian, were on board the Canadair Challenger twin jet (CL60) which veered off the runway. No injuries were reported.

In a statement released in the aftermath of the incident, LPIA noted "immediately upon receiving the call", the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) activated its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), with airport rescue and firefighters also responding.

"Due to the runway excursion, aircraft operations were interrupted for approximately one hour and 30 minutes at LPIA with services resuming at 6pm," the statement continued. "Throughout the duration of the incident, the airport facilities remained open."

There were no flight cancellations.

Delvin Major, chief air accident investigator, told The Tribune yesterday the matter is still under investigation.

When asked when a report will be released, he replied: "We still have to do some further investigation as to the pilot's qualifications, the weather information.

"All that information we've requested but we haven't received that as yet. So we won't be able to say until we get all that information and sit down and actually analyse it to be able to come up with what the probable cause of it was."

The Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID) noted in a post on its website that "weather at the time of the crash included heavy rain and thunderstorm clouds in the vicinity."

Mr D'Aguilar also discussed the incident yesterday in an interview with The Tribune.

"Well the airport closed for approximately 90 minutes which was obviously for safety reasons," he said. "There was an aircraft that had landed and the landing had gone wrong, the plane had veered off the runway and so operations at LPIA were ceased for 90 minutes while an investigation was undertaken to ensure first of all the safety of the passengers onboard, to make sure that everything was all right.

"There were two passengers - two pilots - and they were fine. And then to ensure that the aircraft, where it had settled was in no way restricting, or to ensure that the aircraft was of a sufficient distance from the runway to allow for the safe use of that runway.

"So NAD, being the airport operator of LPIA, came out and assessed the situation. And they determined that the aircraft had slid a sufficient distance from the runway, where safe operation of the runway could resume. So within 90 minutes of it closing, it was open again and flights were landing and taking off.

"When operations at the airport slowed quite considerably, NAD then came back out to the aircraft and I believe that they have removed the aircraft. Or are in the process of assessing how it is to be moved. But that process is now underway."

Mr D'Aguilar could not say what prompted this emergency landing. He said AAID will investigate this matter.

"I just know that the plane landed and something went wrong and it veered off the runway. So I don't think it was - my initial belief is it had nothing to do with the operation of the airport. I just think that it probably had something to do with the way the aircraft was landed. But the (AAID) will give a final opinion on that."

When asked to respond to concerns about the airport's safety, the aviation minister replied: "This is not one thing to concern ourselves about."

"In the terms of our guests we're down to one runway. But NAD has put in place contingency plans for such eventualities happening. So for example a plane could get a flat tyre and get stuck on the runway. They have vehicles out there so we can tow them away. We had a plane that went off the runway and had to be craned out of position. So we have equipment in place for that.

"So NAD knows that it's down to one runway and that runway cannot be restricted for a considerable length of time. So equipment has been mobilised and put in place while runway (09/27) is being resurfaced and the main runway (14/32) has to be kept clear in order for obviously flights to come in and out of the country. So we all recognise that contingency plans are in place, as you saw yesterday (Saturday), to get the airport opened up very, very quickly after such an accident.

"Now, had the accident been more significant or had a plane caught fire or something like that, obviously it would have taken a little bit longer to get that done but contingency plans are in place to get any debris that has come on the runway or any restriction to the runway to be removed as quickly as possible so that operations can resume.

"So contingency plans are in place, no worries about safety at all. The operation of the airport and air traffic control had nothing to do, I believe, although the report will still have to come in. I am advised that at this stage, it had nothing to do with what happened (Saturday).

"So, the airport in my humble opinion, continues to be as safe as it always was."