An unknown person last Friday threatened a bomb attack at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, but the incident did not affect operations at the country’s main airport. Police are said to be working with a telecommunications company in order to track down the caller.
Reports reaching this newspaper indicate that, at around 07:44hrs, an air traffic controller received a call advising that there was a bomb at the airport, but the caller did not give details as to where it was.
The air traffic controller reportedly transmitted the information, and the airport’s contingency plan was activated.
An official at the airport said that this plan involves several key security stakeholders, including the Guyana Fire Service, the Guyana Police Force, and the Guyana Defence Force, who responded when alerted.
Searches were conducted at the airport’s terminal and its environs, and a decision was taken to restrict access to the terminal building. Security officials searched for unattended luggage, bags, and other suspicious items, but nothing was found. During the process, another call was received by the air traffic controller, at around 08:10hrs, saying that the bomb was in the departure area.
Thorough searches were conducted there by the Bomb Squad, but they came up empty-handed.
By 10:45hrs, normalcy had returned to the airport, and passengers were allowed to check in.
The official reported that all flights came and left on time, and were not affected, with the exception of Delta Airlines, which suffered a 14-minute delay due to the bomb scare. However, because it was experiencing operational problems, there was a further delay which lasted for about 40 minutes.
Passengers were not alerted about the bomb scare, because the airport’s emergency committee keenly assessed the threat. “A decision would be made to alert passengers, depending on the amount of information and the credibility of such information; however, the emergency committee took a decision to restrict access to the terminal,” a top airport official said.
In the meantime, Guyana Times International understands that an emergency committee meeting was held at about 13:00hrs last Friday. It was attended by police officials, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) officials, and airline and airport officials, who discussed and reviewed the incident, and agreed on measures to properly mitigate future threats. This publication was told that all partners agreed to increase awareness and enforce tighter security.
This threat follows two bomb explosions which occurred in the city and at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen campus last Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
