Members of the National Search and Rescue Committee began working to upgrade the current Search and Rescue Plan since late last year and this week their work progressed to a ‘table top’ exercise to discuss, analyze and improve the plan, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a press release.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Minister of Works and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, and Members of the National Search and Rescue Committee held the exercise at the Air Traffic Control Tower, Timehri.
The release noted that this exercise was called for by President Bharrat Jagdeo after negative remarks were carried in the media regarding a United States registered Beech King Aircraft, registration number N87V, which went missing over Guyana’s interior in November 2008, while conducting geophysical surveys.
Prime Minister Hinds lauded the members of the committee for proactively responding to this call and for making constructive contributions towards the development to the existing Search and Rescue Plan.
And he noted that while these accidents rarely occur, it is important to be coordinated as a team in order to efficiently execute the search and rescue.
Hinds also observed that the density of Guyana’s forests is a major factor that makes it very difficult for rescue teams to pinpoint a crash site.
Meanwhile, Minister Benn said that this exercise will enable the committee to hone their skills so that requisite responses can be made when such a situation arises.
He noted that each of the cases that Guyana has seen so far is different from the other, so this type of exercise presents an opportunity to analyze the best range of approaches to the different situations and to find the fastest way to provide effective assistance.
Director General, Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Zulficar Mohamed, pointed out that the Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Plan is inherent in the strategy that was discussed in the exercise. He said that the exercise enacted a scenario of a response that would follow for a crash site in the vicinity of Kato to Mahdia.
The exercise allowed for all members of the committee to make constructive criticisms in an effort to develop the original plan.
Director, Air Navigation Services, Arti Heeralall, said that the manual includes the procedures that have to be taken during the operations, and this exercise is one of the requirements as it allows for the testing of the effectiveness of the procedures to see where and how they can make improvements, the release said.
Last year the search for the aircraft which was heading to the vicinity of Chi Chi Falls and Imbaimadai was officially called off after 15 days of relentless searching, the release recalled.
On board the missing aircraft were Captain James Wesley Barker, 28, a US citizen, First Officer Chris Parris, 23, another US citizen and Geophysics Technician and Patrick Murphy, 20, a Canadian citizen.
