THE Eastern Caribbean High Court has barred the removal of one of two aircraft from the Caribbean island of Anguilla and the lawyers for the pilot and team who departed from Guyana while breaching a court order have until July 21st to respond. Their response will facilitate a hearing and will determine whether the injunction will be made absolute.The two aircraft departed the Eugene F Correia International Airport (EFCIA) at Ogle, East Coast Demerara, without authorization three Saturdays ago, breaching a court order in the process.

According to court documents seen by this newspaper, local airline Domestic Airways, filed an injunction in the courts of the Eastern Caribbean High Court to restrict the removal of one of the two Cessna 206 model aircraft bearing registration 8R-GMP from the Clayton Lloyd Airport, Anguilla.

The ex-parte application for an interim injunction was granted by Justice Cheryl Mathurin in chambers of the Anguilla Circuit against Munidat Persaud, Oxford Aviation and Daniel Frederick.

“The respondents are restrained whether personally, jointly, severally or by their agents, servants or assigns from interfering with, attempting or actually removing, relocating, flying, boarding, carrying out any mechanical work, refueling, dismantling, selling or transferring, carrying out any inspection of an aircraft currently located at the Clayton Lloyd Airport, Anguilla being a Cessna aircraft with registration mark 8R-GMP serial number U206-1117,” the court document states.

The interim injunction was granted after the court was presented with affidavits by Charles and Attorneys-at-Law Stephen Roberts and Nigel Mercurius. Domestic Airways and its director Orlando Charles are being represented by Samantha Wright of Wright and Company Solicitors in Anguilla.

This newspaper has seen documents filed in the courts here on June 20th in which Persaud , Oxford Aviation and Frederick were barred from removing or attempting to remove the two aircraft from the airport at Ogle. The matter was expected to be heard before Justice Roxane George on June 24th but according to reports , Persaud nor anyone connected to the his company, appeared in court.

The following day, around 04:00 h, Persaud and another pilot , known only as “Vladimir “ used their airside passes to gain access to the two aircraft after indicating to security personnel at the airport that they were going to place equipment on board. The two took –off and flew undetected until landing for refueling purposes on the island of Grenada. They flew further north to Anguilla where they were detained.

One of the aircraft, registered as 8R-GTP, was allowed to depart for San Juan Puerto Rico while an absence of airworthiness documents prevented the other from leaving. The principals of Domestic Aviation subsequently filed court papers preventing the departure of the other.

Locally, an inquiry has been launched into the incident to ensure the matter is not repeated.