THE Ministry of Social Protection has recommended that an emergency vehicle or ambulance be stationed at the Eugene F Correia International Airport permanently. This recommendation was made following an industrial accident which occurred at the airport on June 21, 2016, when an employee of Roraima Airways was burnt and damaged his heel due to an unknown outbreak of fire under the left wing of a Britten-Norman Trislander aircraft that was undergoing maintenance at the time.
At the time of the incident, there was no medical vehicle to take the injured Anil Rampersand to the hospital. The injured man used his personal vehicle to get to the Woodlands Hospital; the vehicle was driven by a colleague and he was at risk of sustaining further injury to his body. The ambulance service was called, however, the response vehicle took a lengthy period of time to arrive at Ogle.
On Friday, the final report of the investigation which was prepared by Prandatt Basdeo was handed over to a representative of the Roraima Airway Inc at the Ministry of Social Protection, Brickdam, Georgetown. The report stated that the accident which caused Mr Rampersand to sustain burns and an injured heel centres on many employers who treat occupational safety and health with minimal regard, because more value is placed on profits rather than people.
In the report, several findings were highlighted. It was noted that at the time of the accident, Mr Rampersand was not attired in suitable protective clothing and was not covered in his overall which is provided to employees by the company.
The report stated that the accident could have been avoided if a risk assessment had been conducted prior to commencement of the maintenance work. Rampersand was responsible for supervising the execution of the maintenance procedures and should have taken the responsibility to ensure that the assessment was done.
Due to the lack of the assessment being done, it was reported that around 14:05 hrs, while servicing and maintenance were being carried out on the aircraft, a fire of unknown origin erupted under the left wing, which Rampersand was standing on. This caused him to sustain burns about his body and resulted in him jumping to the ground which was approximately six feet below him.
The Guyana Fire Service, which is stationed at the airport, responded to the fire call but on arrival at the scene, the fire had already been extinguished by employees of Roraima. The fire department was left to conduct their inquiry to determine the cause of the fire, as well as whether the correct steps were followed in fighting a fire of that nature.
It was noted that the expected outcome of professionalism was not displayed by the Fire Service in its report and the service did nothing to ascertain the root cause of the explosion.
The employees of Roraima Airways Inc were commended for their diligence in putting out the fire, as they acted smartly and promptly while demonstrating a level of training, in firefighting procedures.
The Ministry of Social Protection stated that a joint workplace safety committee must be established and must function according to standard procedures. Even though the company provides a limited amount of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) of a general nature, specialised PPE for use in the aircraft industry should be acquired and issued to all employees free of cost, the report said.
In addition, it was noted that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that a risk assessment is conducted prior to the commencement of every maintenance exercise. It was noted that it is an acceptable fact that lessons are learnt from each accident or fire investigation and the fire department was singled out for undertaking improved investigation into any other incident that is to be reported.