THE Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCCA) has mounted an investigation into the crash of a US-registered aircraft which resulted

in the deaths of the two crew members on board, just after 15:00hrs yesterday.
According to eyewitnesses, the aircraft, identified as a twin-engine Piper Aztec with registration number N27-FT, had just taken off from the Ogle Airport when its engines began misfiring. The engines then reportedly lost power and the pilot attempted to land in the Plaisance Community playfield but failed, hitting the top of a coconut tree before crashing into a house and exploding on impact.
The owner of the house at Lot 78, Sparendaam Housing Scheme, 69-year-old Florence Dyer-Tyndall, was at the rear of the wooden house and escaped from harm by fleeing after her house caught afire from the aircraft’s impact.
According to Public Works Minister Robeson Benn, who rushed to the scene, the small aircraft was on a technical survey mission for the Amaila Falls hydropower access road to conduct a LIDAR survey for the best geometrical and other alignments for the road. It was said to be contracted from the Miami-based Angiel EnviroSafe Inc, which offers aerial camera platform services. He said that from initial reports, the cause of the crash appeared to have been engine failure. “It took off with six hours of fuel from Ogle Airport and it looks like it lost an engine and then crashed,” Benn told reporters at the crash site.
Director General of the GCCA, Zulfikar Mohammed, said investigators would be going through the rubble and taking eyewitness accounts. “We have to go through the site and look at whatever is available and use first hand information – observers’ information – and you take whatever is available there and do an analysis. We have to retrieve the engines to ensure that they are properly examined to determine if that was part of the cause of the accident,” he said.
Mohammed added that the plane had just refuelled and was about to embark on a second mission for the day when it went down.
Crash investigators, ministry officials and fire service ranks rushed to the scene just after the shocking incident, which according to the Government Information Agency, is the first aircraft accident for 2013, locally.  Among those who arrived within minutes of the tragedy were Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee; Police Commissioner Leroy Brummell; Crime Chief Seelall Persaud; GDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Colonel Bruce Lovell; Fire Chief Marlon Gentle, and officials of the Civil Aviation Department and from the Ogle Airport complex.
And when this publication arrived, police and fire personnel were busy bringing the flames under control and establishing security cordons at the crash site. Nevertheless, hundreds of curious Guyanese, especially East Coast Demerara residents, converged on the scene, but investigators had already cordoned off the immediate area around the crash site, preventing them from venturing beyond the police barriers.

DECEASED PERSONS UNKOWN
The aircraft, which had on board two (so far unidentified) persons, one being a surveyor and the other a US citizen, was owned by Digital World Mapping Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and was reputedly equipped with six hours of fuel to do surveying works for the Amaila Falls project in Guyana.

HOMELESS
The victim of the accident, Mrs. Tyndall, was at the time in her home preparing to attend service at the nearby Seventh-day Adventist Church, and had engaged her neighbour, Mrs. Desiree Adams, in a conversation from her back steps when the plane crashed into her home.
She managed to get help from her nephew, Joseph Stewart, who was at the time bringing home his niece from visiting their aunt, who is said to be hospitalized at a city hospital.
Stewart, an engineer, recalled that he was in his car driving when he heard this loud sound getting closer to him, but he could not tell from which direction the sound was coming.
He later saw a large shadow pass over his car, and as he looked to his right, he saw the plane gliding close to his vehicle. The shocked Stewart told this newspaper that his niece began screaming as the wheels on the wings of the aircraft got closer to his car door, but he managed to accelerate his vehicle and turn the nearest corner, thereby managing to avoid having his vehicle entangled with the plane. As he stopped and disembarked his car, the visibly shaken man said the aircraft landed just behind his aunt’s home.
Stewart’s niece, the traumatised 17-year-old Danielle Belle, explained that she was in her uncle’s car when she saw the plane ‘circling’ the area. She thought it had developed engine problems as it was flying too low, almost skimming houses in the scheme. She said she watched in dread since it was in the vicinity of her family’s homes, and she was concerned for their safety.
She noted that as her uncle got closer home, she saw the plane getting closer to the car, but her uncle managed to speed out of the way and the plane ended up crashing into her family’s home.
Desiree Adams was so deeply traumatized she could not speak to this newspaper. She tearfully remained speechless.
Mrs. Tyndall estimated the damage to the home and furnishings and valuables inside at more than G$3.5M. The small cottage was totally demolished, and she could manage to save only her pet parrot and its cage.