The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has launched an investigation into Sunday afternoon’s near miss involving a LIAT aircraft which was inbound to the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport (CJIA), Timehri and a Learjet which had minutes earlier departed the airport for Jamaica.
Minister of Transport, Robeson Benn told this newspaper last evening that an investigation has been launched into the incident, after which required action will be taken against whatever party is found to be at fault.
This, he said, is a normal procedure which the GCAA would take whenever such incidents occur.
Stabroek News understands that a senior member of the GCAA stationed at Timehri was on duty at the time of the incident in which the LIAT aircraft’s pilot had to take drastic evasive action to avoid colliding with the Learjet.
Her air traffic control licence has since been suspended pending the investigation. A source told this newspaper that the matter is also engaging the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Reports are that around 2 pm on Sunday, the LIAT aircraft was proceeding to CJIA when it came within hundreds of feet of the Learjet.
There have been several near misses at the airport in recent years.
On Saturday, an Air Services Limited plane made an emergency landing at Baganara after one of its engines failed.
There must be some systemic weaknesses in the ATC system in Guyana for there to be such frequent incidents. Without the benefit of the facts surrounding this latest incident, I will not pass judgement, but rather ask a few questions. Do air traffic controllers get mandatory fatigue breaks away from the control position during their tour of duty? When last was there a refresher training course for the current stock of air traffic controllers? Is the ATC system adequately staffed, thereby reducing the need for overtime work? These are just some of the questions must be addressed if we are to mitigate these regular near misses since human error could easily have played a part if one or more answers to my questions is NO.
Moving on to equipment, is there any kind of surveillance? The answer is a resounding NO. The complexity of the air traffic in Guyana demands the use of either surveillance RADAR or Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS-B). Situational awareness is seriously compromised if an air traffic controller cannot see the representation of each aircraft on a display. Without surveillance equipment, air traffic controllers must rely on their memory and flight progress strips to visualize where each aircraft is relative to the others. I must admit that that is too much for the human brain considering that the air traffic controller performs many other tasks simultaneously.
What was learnt from the previous incidents? Were they investigated? Have there been new procedures developed to mitigate the reoccurrence of these incidents? It’s sad to say, but until these and other questions are addressed, we will see more of these incidents.
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