The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is tasked with ensuring the safety and management of Guyana’s airspace and has come under scrutiny following the illegal landing of a suspected drug plane in the south of the country.
A Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the landing of the plane and the operation that allowed it to stay hidden from authorities more than a week after its arrival was set up and carried out by retired Brigadier Edward Collins.

Several breaches of the Authority’s rules and regulations were committed information on the Col stated. Head of the agency, Captain Egbert Field said those breaches included but were not limited to the aircraft illegally flying in Guyana’s airspace without registration. Field said the plane was not registered in any of the International Civil Aviation Organization countries. As it relates to Guyana, the Authority’s rules says, “An aircraft shall not fly in or over Guyana unless it is registered in a Contracting State; or some other country which has an agreement with Guyana which makes provision for aircraft to fly in or over Guyana.”

The aircraft displayed a false registration number against the order of the GCAA. “An aircraft shall not bear any marks which purports to indicate that the aircraft is registered in a country in which it is not in fact registered.”
“Every aircraft before commencing a flight must file a flight plan with the relevant authority which was not in this situation.” Given some of these breaches, Field noted that the flight therefore was illegal in the jurisdiction. The GCAA Head also pointed out, that the current and more modern tracking system recently adopted by the industry, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is for “monitoring and management of legal air traffic in our airspace.” Field told the newspaper that if flights do not check in with the country’s relevant aviation arms there is no way to know that a plane would have entered the airspace.

It was explained that ADS-B requires cooperation between both ends of the communication chain since the pilot would have to activate his system, make the connection with the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who thus provide guidance as the pilot uses the airspace. Prior to the ADS-B system which is still not widely utilised across the sector, operators depended heavily on radio communication.

Several breaches outside of the aviation scope noted by the COI such as local collusion with the aircraft operators were highlighted. It suggested therefore, major upgrade of the Guyana Defence Force’s actions in the region such as deployment, surveillance and networking. An upgrade in transport and other equipment was also suggested. It was recommended that the GCAA provide an aircraft recognition handbook of Guyana’s aircraft in flight and landed, along with registered and authorized airstrips in Region Nine. It should be made available to the GDF, village councils and police force, the report recommended.