– Minister Benn
MINISTER of Transport and Hydraulics Mr. Robeson Benn yesterday informed that the wreckage of Caribbean Airlines (CAL) Flight BW523 could be cleared for removal from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) by today.
He explained that a “wrap up” meeting was concluded on Wednesday evening, with all the stakeholders including the investigative team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
“The investigations are continuing. We had a briefing this afternoon and all members of the NTSB team, save for one, will be departing as they have gathered their data,” Benn revealed.
The minister noted that the local officials have been briefed on the data gathered so far and will be awaiting the final report.
As to what will happen pending the final word on what caused the accident, he said, “Hopefully the plane will be cleared for removal from the runway. If it is cleared tomorrow (today), then it will be removed to a hangar at the CJIA.”
On July 30, the flight, from Piarco to CJIA, landed at 01:32 hrs and overran the runway with 154 passengers and six crew members on board.
Thirty-five passengers were taken to Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where three were admitted, the most severe injury suffered was a broken leg.
Less than two hours after, President Bharrat Jagdeo visited the passengers at the airport to offer his support during the traumatic time.
Following the mishap, an investigation was launched by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, in collaboration with the Caribbean Aviation Safety Oversight System (CASSOS) and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The investigating team also included eight specialists from the United States, two persons from the Boeing Company and two from Suriname.
In addition, representatives from Caribbean Airlines flew into Guyana shortly after the accident to discuss the way forward.  

THE WRECKAGE
Meanwhile, Minister Benn, in a ‘Statement by Ministers’ in the National Assembly yesterday afternoon, defended the airport authority’s response to CAL’s crash-landing incident and chided local and international media for painting ‘a less than rosy picture’ of the response and the condition of the  Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Timehri.
A Boeing 737-800 plane, BW flight 523 from Piarco International Airport but originating from JFK International Airport in New York crash-landed after it apparently overran the runway at CJIA on Saturday morning at 01.32 hrs with a total of 160 crew and passengers. As a result of the landing, the plane was broken in two and the aircraft, according to the minister, “is given as a loss.”
“The Government notes with great concern attempts in the media to discredit and vilify the physical and operational environment at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, particularly at the time of the accident,” the minister said in the House.
He said that descriptions of the prevailing weather conditions and the state of the runway at the time of the accident and the timeliness of the emergency response personnel are issues that have been sensationalized in certain sections of the media, both nationally and overseas.
“Apparently, without any attempts at basic and proper investigative journalism, reports from the hydro meteorological office at Timehri, which is equipped with a modern Doppler radar system, indicate that there was a light drizzle at the time of the accident. Visibility was at 8 km with a cloud ceiling of 9,000 feet,” Minister Benn said.
“This is public information readily available at the Met Office,” he said.
The minister said too that, with respect to the state of the runway, according to the CJIA, the annual audit that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conducted in January 2011 described the runway as excellent.
“The runway at the CJIA has a length of 2,270 meters or 7,448 feet. The runway is cambered and grooved to shed water from rainfall at a rapid rate. Given the amount of rainfall, 1.8 mm reported 30 minutes before the accident and runway design, there was no possibility of standing water on the runway,” the minister said.
“I am advised that the runway lighting and the precision approach indicators necessary for the type of approaches and landings normally executed at the CJIA by the type of aircraft in question are all functioning,” he said.
“It is worthy of note that these are the same instrumentation that has been used for at least the last eight years at the CJIA and over that time Caribbean Airlines’ aircraft have executed over 10,000 landings handling a total of 2.1 million passengers without accident,” Benn said.
The minister said that following the opening of the airport at 11:30 hrs on the day of the CAL accident, the airline proceeded to resume flight operations including night landings.
In relation to the emergency response mechanism in place at the airport and their response to the accident, “I have seen first-hand video footage from airport security cameras which record the airport fire service responding within three minutes of receipt of the emergency call from the control tower.”
He said first responders also included the airport’s Duty Officer, airport’s ramp attendants, and airport security trained in emergency response.
“It was the Guyana Fire Service personnel which [sprayed] foam on the aircraft’s number two engine and freed the flight crew from the aircraft. The Government wishes to express its continued commitment to an expeditious but thorough professional investigation. It is important that it be understood that investigations of this nature and magnitude usually take up to one year before a final report is forthcoming,” Benn said.
“Madame Speaker, the CJIA continues to operate as an internationally certified and licenced safe facility with the same number of daily flights by international operators inclusive of Caribbean Airlines Limited,” the minister declared.
He said that, according to international requirements, the Government commissioned an investigation into the accident. The investigation is being coordinated by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority.
To date, he said five teams have been mobilized comprising special investigators drawn from the GCAA, the Caribbean Aviation Safety Oversight and Security System, the National Transportation and Safety Board of the US at the request of the GCAA, the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority, Boeing Aircraft Company – the aircraft’s manufacturer, Caribbean Airlines Limited and the Suriname Civil Aviation Authority.
Benn said the teams are looking at air worthiness, examining the structure and engines of the aircraft, operations to address pilot and crew activities, aircraft performance to monitor and determine whether the aircraft was operationalised within normal parameters, meteorological to access weather and its direct effects on the operation of the aircraft and survival factors to access the performance of the crew and the physical conditions of the relevant parts of the aerodrome.
“All of the necessary technical expertise needed for the execution of a thorough investigation is in place,” the minister said. He added that the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have been recovered and have been delivered to the NTSB in the USA for evaluation and analysis.
The minister said that four of the five teams have concluded their preliminary investigations and are in the process of compiling their preliminary reports. (Additional reporting by Johann Earle)