ALMOST two weeks after the air disaster at Antigua’s  airport, which claimed the life of 57-year-old Guyanese Sandrama Poligadu, a passenger en route to Montserrat, the dead woman’s relatives in Guyana are yet to be officially contacted by the airlines or anyone in authority, anywhere, they say.

Asking questions for almost two weeks about the death of one’s mother, and the possibility of getting her body back home for burial, but with no answers, is like treading a certain road to insanity, her eldest son Kisnsammy Poligadu says.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Poligadu’s relatives in Antigua said they learnt that a pathologist from Trinidad was due to travel to Antigua to perform autopsies on the dead, but it would appear that to date, this has not happened.
Relatives yesterday said they eventually contacted the Antiguan police by phone, and were advised that, unless the autopsies are done, the bodies cannot be handed over to their relatives.  Asked what was preventing the autopsies from being performed, the police could not say.
According to an Antiguan daily newspaper, the flight, which was bound for Montserrat, was already airborne, but apparently developed difficulty and plunged back  onto the runway. Three persons perished:  the pilot, Jason Forbes of Antigua, Mrs Poligadu, and a 29-year-old Jamaican school teacher.  The lone survivor is Jason Hudson, a British national who was treated at a hospital in Antigua.
Meanwhile, it is not known whether the treatment meted out to relatives of the Guyanese woman, Mrs. Sandrama Poligadu, was the same for the relatives of the others who perished, or the  passenger from the United Kingdom.  But Poligadu’s relatives have expressed utter disappointment at what they term the ‘scant courtesy’ or blatant disregard for them from the airlines in whose hands their mother’s life was entrusted.
The relatives claim that their mother bought her ticket from Caribbean Airlines in Guyana, and left here early on the morning of Sunday October 7.  Before taking off for Montserrat, she had two other flight connections, transiting first in Trinidad, then Antigua. It was while they were leaving Antigua later that Sunday afternoon, en route to Montserrat,  that tragedy struck.
The woman’s son, Kisnsammy Polidagu, speaking with this newspaper by telephone from their home in Corentyne,  Berbice, yesterday, said that on no occasion were they contacted by any of the airlines, telling them of their mother’s death.  Out of convenience, or at least so they think, they tried communicating with Caribbean Airlines on whose air carrier their mother flew out of Guyana.
At the time, they were hoping that CA would have been able to give them some clear guidance on what is expected of them, and what they can expect, in terms of having their mother’s body brought back home. Or at least help them get names and telephone numbers and email addresses or websites they contact for information immediately needed in relation to their mother.
The first thing they came to realise was that it was not as easy as they thought, to reach CA by telephone.  Relatives resorted to asking this newspaper to try reaching CA on their behalf, since they live all the way up the Corentyne;  but the airline advised that it does not fly to Montserrat, and further, that it was not its carrier that crashed, resulting in the woman’s death.  They therefore, did not feel that it was their responsibility to contact relatives, nor feed them with any information  in relation to further developments.
Disappointed at the airline’s response, Kisnsammy said he finds it strange that an airline could display such gross insensitivity. “All we want at this point in time is for our mother’s body to be brought home to be accorded its religious rites and a decent burial.
Disappointed at the negligence being displayed in all quarters, the family, on Monday, contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guyana and outlined their predicament.  However, they are yet to receive a response from Foreign Affairs, they say.
The family is asking that their mother’s body be returned home soonest, and that it be treated with the dignity it deserves.  Under such circumstances, they say they would like for the airlines to arrange for her son-in-law to whose home she was going, to accompany the body back home, and that this should be done as soon as possible.
“With each passing day, the pain is intensified.  It’s been far more than one week since our mother has died and the people in whose hands we entrusted her are saying nothing to us. We consider that very insensitive,” relatives contend.
Sandrama’s daughter Rajama Poligadu who lives with her husband and three-year old daughter in Montserrat, is pregnant and on bed rest in hospital there.  As a result, the family took a decision for her mother to travel to Montserrat to be with her during her pregnancy.  Pathetically, even though she set out on her journey, Sandrama never arrived there.
Meanwhile, the family continues to have a wake for their mother, but said it is most embarrassing that when relatives and sympathizers come to their home or otherwise ask questions such as when would the body be brought home and what plans are in place for burial, they cannot give answers.