Reports of an alleged altercation on board an incoming Travel Span flight from New York have reached the ears of senior officials within the airline and they are now trying to ascertain if this may have been a factor in the swaying and dive on the December 17 flight.
A senior official from the airline yesterday told Stabroek News that they learnt of the alleged altercation from passengers on board the flight and the matter is also now being investigated by the airline’s crew-leasing company Xtra-Airways.
The official said the results of those investigations have not been released as yet and so he was unable to confirm what exactly occurred on the flight.
Media reports of the altercation had also attracted attention from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) whose investigations are based on reports from passengers of swaying and a dive by the airline’s Boeing 737-800 on December 17.
GCAA acting Director General Paula Mc Adam also confirmed that the investigations were ongoing but noted that the body was awaiting word from the airline’s operation department on the results of their investigations.
She said the body’s investigations, done through interviews with passengers, had revealed that the aircraft was in an “unusual disposition” or altitude during the flight which was on its way to Georgetown from New York on December 17.
“Our investigations revealed that indeed something did happen since some passengers have said that the aircraft was swaying and some said too that it made a sudden dive,” she said.
However the GCAA is still unable to ascertain what exactly caused the occurrence and has since contacted the airline’s operations department, which has also launched its own internal investigation.
“The pilots are the only people now who could confirm exactly what happened and so they have to make contact with us, but at the moment we are not in a position to confirm what occurred and so we are waiting on the results of their investigations,” the acting GCAA head said.
Travel Span began operations here around a month ago.
