A 57-YEAR-OLD Guyanese woman was among persons who perished on Sunday, when a ‘Fly Montserrat’ aircraft, taking off from the VC Bird International Airport in Antigua, and bound for Montserrat, crashed after developing mechanical problems. Dead is Sandrama Poligadu of 4 Williamsburg, Corentyne. It was with deep shock that her relatives in Guyana, including her son Kisnsammy Poligadu, also called ‘Wayloo’ and his wife Roxanne, of Mon Repos, received the news of her demise.

Roxanne told this newspaper that her mother- in-law had only earlier Sunday morning left Guyana for the first time, on board a Caribbean Airlines flight and was transiting in Antigua, en route to Monteserrat. She departed Cheddi Jagan International Airport around 05:00hrs and arrived in Antigua later in the day.

Sandrama was going to the French Island to spend some time with her daughter, Rajma and husband, and their three-year-old daughter. Roxanne related that Rajma is pregnant, and of recent, has not been doing very well.  As a result, her doctors placed her on bed rest, and the family decided that her mother, Sandrama, would travel to Montserrat and spend some time in the home where she would be of help to them.

Relatives recalled that the day before she left Guyana, Sandrama who lived on the Corentyne, was in really good sorts and travelled to Georgetown and the East Coast on Saturday, where she visited her relatives and friends and had a good time. Very early the next morning she left for the airport for at 02:00hrs to check in. She cleared Immigration and it was the last time her relatives here saw her.

Roxanne said that relatives who kept contact with Chandrina by phone, verified that she had boarded the Britten Norman Islander aircraft plane at the VC Bird International Airport, Antigua, bound for Montserrat around 16:15hrs.  

However, after waiting and not hearing anything more, towards 18:00hrs relatives in Montserrat became uneasy. They said, on enquiring, they learnt from the hospital at Montserrat that the flight they were expecting had developed difficulties and had crashed. It would appear it had just lifted off the run-way when it developed problems and crashed.

Roxanne said she gathered that her mother-in-law did not die immediately, but succumbed in the ambulance on her way to the hospital in Antigua. A younger daughter in Montserrat went to the hospital where she positively identified her mother.

Relatives have since commenced making arrangements to have the woman’s body brought home for burial.