ONE LAST FLIGHT
Pilots bearing the body of Captain Alvin Clarke during the hero’s welcome given  him by Captain Gerry Gouveia and Roraima Airways
Pilots bearing the body of Captain Alvin Clarke during the hero’s welcome given him by Captain Gerry Gouveia and Roraima Airways

–return of the body of the late Captain Alvin Winston Clarke from Canada

By Shauna Jemmott
HEROES come and heroes go, but even as Captain Alvin Winston Clarke has passed on to the Great Beyond, Roraima Airways Chief Executive Officer, Captain Gerry Gouveia, gave him a “Hero’s welcome” when five airplanes, a sky-van and a helicopter lined the airwaves in arranged choreography as they transferred his body from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to the Ogle International Airport late on Friday afternoon.

Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes comforts the daughters of Captain Clarke
Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes comforts the daughters of Captain Clarke

The night sky was lit with the lights of airplanes as the entourage, which included team-leader Gerry Gouveia, several pilots, Roraima Airways staff, family, a few friends and the media surrounded the sky-van on the aerial return and landed at 5:38 pm on the runway, which the late Captain Clarke used to dominate with his take-offs and landings as a pilot.
Clarke’s body was flown from Canada by Fly Jamaica airline, and touched down at 4:20 pm on Friday. He was given a welcome deserving of the hero he had become to thousands over the years.
A fleet of airplanes, led by the BK Skytruck, departed Ogle airport for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), and awaited his arrival. On the tarmac at the CJIA, scores of Aviators formed an honour passage as his body, taken off the Fly Jamaica Jet, was transferred onto the BK Skytruck.
The fleet of seven aircraft, led by the Skytruck, flew over the city of Georgetown before touching down at the Ogle Airport, where his body was borne by Pilots and placed in the Merriman’s Funeral Home hearse and taken away.
Captain Clarke was fighting for his life but lost to the dreaded disease cancer on Saturday, November 21, while he was in Canada for a medical evaluation.

One final flight: The fleet of aircraft transports Captain Clarke away from Timehri
One final flight: The fleet of aircraft transports Captain Clarke away from Timehri

He was remembered today as hero, friend, pilot, dad, humorous, handsome, and a man worthy of great honour. Captain Clarke was known as one who cared deeply about the survival of those whose lives were at stake, and he flew at any hour at nights to transport passengers in need of urgent medical help.

A HERO
He had been hero and friend to Attorney-at-Law and Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes, who credited the pilot with saving his life. Speaking to the media at Ogle on Friday, Hughes declared, “I am alive today because of him.” He explained that it was Clark who had travelled into the interior at an hour many would not feel is worth the sacrifice, and had flown him miles out of Guyana’s hinterland to where he could access medical help.
“When I had my heart episode in Purudi at 1:00 am in the morning, he flew into Aishalton with unlit runway with flambeaux (lamps) inside and flew me out, and that’s what saved me; and that’s about four hours after I had the heart attack.”
Hughes said that when he heard of the pilot’s illness eight months ago, he knew he needed to be there for him and his family through a very difficult period. Now that Clark has passed on, Hughes joined the party to welcome his hero one final time, “Only to make sure that he arrives here and he is treated with the dignity that he deserves. As a friend, that’s the least I could do.”
Captain Gouveia, Clarke’s employer and closest buddy, said that for the 40 years they had bonded, he had found Clarke to be dependable. Even strangers trusted his sure response every time there was a distant emergency call.
“He was dependable. When the people on the hinterland of Guyana — all over this hinterland — when this country was sleeping at night, they know they could have called Roraima and they know that Roraima would respond. I could have stayed in my bed because I know that he would do it, and if he couldn’t do it and didn’t do it, I had to do it. And because he was there, I didn’t have to do it, and he did it and he did it for years, and he did it well,” Gouveia said.

Would be different
With sadness printed all over his face, Captain Gouveia stood strong to receive the late Captain Clarke, managing the event and speaking to the media. He said work at Roraima and life in general would be different with his Chief Captain gone forever.
“…but I’ll miss him. He was a fantastic guy. I will tell you that a Guyanese hero died in the realest sense of the word.” Gouveia said Clarke had a fantastic sense of humour. He is the pilot’s pilot. He is tall, dark and handsome,” he reflected with his first smile.
After leaving the army, Clarke became one of the leading Medivac pilots at Roraima and in Guyana, generally risking his life to save a life almost weekly, Captain Gouveia revealed.
“Medivac in Guyana is very difficult because medivac means you’re actually going into that jungle in the dead of the night, sometimes in the worst weather conditions, and landing on runways with flambeaus on it to save people’s lives; and he’s done it countless times, sometimes five/six times a month. So he’s really an exceptional guy.”
He reminisced on the night Hughes’s life was saved: “It was a terrible night, raining, and he went. And we know the confidence that we have that every time we launch him in the dead of the night, we know that he is coming back.”
Gouveia said that after learning of Clarke’s illness and that he was terminally ill, he and Hughes had written President Granger. “We asked the President to consider giving Alvin a national award when he was still alive. If there was a person who deserved a national award, not only because he was a pilot — but he was a pilot of exceptional skills, but more particularly of exceptional courage, and I think that is what national awardees are made of, that’s the purpose of national awards. And if there is anyone that deserved a national award, he did,” Gouveia said, holding back tears.

Speaking of the welcome home the pilot received from Roraima, Gouveia quickly alluded, “But you know, what we honoured him this afternoon. He deserved it,” he said.
Roraima, in a statement to the press, said: “Captain Clarke served as an officer and pilot in the Guyana Defence Force, and gained ‘Veteran Medivac Pilot’ status over the years, belting more than thirteen thousand (13,000) hours of flight time. He also served as Roraima’s Chief Pilot from April 1, 2005 up to the time of his death. He was nominated for a National Award by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes and Roraima Airways for his sterling contribution to aviation and medical evacuations. It is our hope that this nomination is considered by the Government of Guyana”.

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