The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is investigating a minor incident which occurred on Sunday evening at the Eugene Correia International Airport (ECIA), Ogle, when the plane that landed President Irfaan Ali and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley veered off the concrete taxiway, sources say.
Sources told the Stabroek News that the aircraft, a Short SC-7 Skyvan with registration number 8R-GGK, had just landed from Boa Vista, Brazil, and was taxiing on the ECIA’s main runway to the terminal when one of its wheels went off the concrete and on to the grass.
Emergency systems were activated and the President and Prime Minister had to exit at that point and were whisked away by state security personnel.
Several calls by this newspaper to head of the GCAA Egbert Field for comment were declined.
“The pilots are very experienced pilots but there was a problem with the windscreen fogging up and that may have led to the incident. That is what we understand from preliminary reports…,” a source told this newspaper.
The Skyvan aircraft, which is said to have not been equipped with modern avionic systems, such as a weather radar, is reportedly the last of the SC models to be built and has been in operation since 1985. This aircraft is scheduled to be retired in October of this year. It was once owned by a Barbadian firm which later sold it to Guyana’s state owned Guyana Airways Corporation.
When GAC became defunct, it was given to the Guyana Defence Force.
Guyana’s Honorary Counsel to Barbados Gerry Gouveia assured that the incident was minor.
“The aircraft had just landed safely and was taxiing very slowly, turning off of the main runway unto the taxi with poor visibility when the nose gear exited the concrete taxiway, slightly. The aircraft was immediately stopped on the taxiway. It is important to note that the entire aircraft remained firmly positioned on the taxi with only its nose gear slightly off the concrete in the grass. There was no damage to the aircraft. The aircraft was pushed backed and continued its flight into the CJIA totally serviceable,” Gouveia said, even as he distinguished that he spoke not as Guyana’s Security Advisor but in his diplomatic capacity.
“I have been a pilot for 45 years and have served as the chief pilot of the Guyana Defence Force, am now the CEO of Roraima Airways and have accumulated in excess of 15,000 hours flying all across Guyana , South America and the Caribbean,” he added while explaining that weather and dew point influence visibility when a plane lands.
