Two flights leaving the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Timehri were delayed yesterday morning, after a damaged pipe flooded parts of the airport’s terminal building.
According to reports, sometime after midnight Monday, a pipe in a basement near the Duty Free shops and the immigration offices at the terminal came loose and water gradually accumulated in the area.
When contacted yesterday, CJIA Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir told Stabroek News that the area was flooded and water began to accumulate sometime around 4 am. He said that an underground water link had burst.
This newspaper understands that nearby offices, including the airport’s Duty Free shops were under water for most of the morning and staff commenced a mop-up exercise thereafter. The exercise was on-going up until around lunch time yesterday, a staff member noted.
Ghir confirmed that two departing Caribbean Airlines flights were affected, but noted that both left almost an hour after their scheduled departure times. Passengers would have had to pass through the affected area on their way to board the flights.
Ghir said that the situation was remedied during the day and operations had returned to normal. The airport facilities and its environs are usually maintained and monitored by a Works Branch technical unit, which is on-call on a 24-hour basis.
