An aerial view of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana
The wrecked Boeing 737-800 Caribbean Airlines airplane BW 523 has been removed from the crash site and taken to a hangar within the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), where it will be reassembled and be available for future investigations.
With the crashed airline removed, the runway which was shortened by 500 feet was back in full operations on Friday evening. The entire runway is 7500 feet.
The final part of the aircraft was removed on August 12, clearing the crash site for vehicles to gain access to the South Dakota Circuit and Jubilee Resort, CJIA Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir said.
In addition, Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Director Zulfikar Mohamed related that the aircraft is parked at the old Guyana Airways hangar, next to the air traffic control tower and will remain there until the final report of the crash is submitted to the organisation.
Mohamed further disclosed that to facilitate the removal of the aircraft, a few incoming and departing flights were delayed for more than one hour. The intention for the delays was indicated to the relevant authorities well in advance this paper was told.
When asked about the investigations process, he noted that the National Transportation Safety Board is still conducting its investigations, including analysing the black box that was removed from the crashed Boeing 737-800.
“We would not get any information as to the investigations, until the final report is presented to the GCAA after the completion of the investigations,” the GCAA head noted. The black box, which was removed from the airplane two days after the mishap was taken to Washington DC to be analysed. The black box would have all the recordings of various transmissions between the pilots and the control tower.
This instrument can provide the reason for the crash. An airport official told Guyana Times International that prior to the incident, the pilot was in contact with the air traffic controllers, who gave clearance for the plane to land.
Following the crash, an investigation was launched and was conducted by five teams including an operations team; an aircraft and performance team; a metrological team and the survival team. These teams also include officials from Suriname, Caribbean Airlines, and the Boeing Aircraft Company and from the GCAA. As part of the investigations and, more so, to prove that the CJIA runway is in conformity with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a friction test was conducted and the airport was given the thumbs-up. This test was performed by an expert from Barbados in the presence of CJIA officials, representatives from Caribbean Airlines and U.S. NTSB. From investigations, the aircraft landed outside the touchdown zone, which ultimately made it difficult for the pilot to control and stop the aircraft. It was further reported that it was possible after the pilot realised he could not have brought the aircraft to a halt, he cut off all power supply in the aircraft before the point of impact, which meant even if the wings were hit, they would have broken rather than explode.
Recently, Transport Minister Robeson Benn dispelled rumours that the lighting and the precision approach path indicators were non-functional, pointing out that they were operational on the night of the accident.
He said prior to the accident, the equipment were being used for the past eight years at the airport and over that time, Caribbean Airlines aircrafts have executed over 10,000 landings, handling a total of 2.1 million passengers without any accident.
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