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Caribbean Airlines crash…Trinidad unhappy Guyana’s statements that suggested bad landing was at fault
The Civil Aviation Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CAA) is disassociating itself from a 
statement by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) which says that Caribbean Airlines flight, BW 523, which crash landed in Guyana on August 30 last year, was not in a position to land safely.
The dismissal by the Trinidad and Tobago authorities was carried yesterday in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
On Wednesday, a GCAA statement said that from all indications at this time, “it appears that the primary contributing factor in this accident was that the aircraft made a long landing and touched down with insufficient runway remaining to come to a safe stop.”
Contacted for comment, CAA Director General Ramesh Lutchmedial told Newsday that “Trinidad and Tobago, through the CAA — which is an official part of the investigating team — is dissociating itself from such a statement, if it were made.”
The statement, he said, “is totally inappropriate, wrong and goes against the principles of accidents investigations because the investigation is far from complete. We have just completed field investigations.”
According to the Newsday report, Director General of GCAA, Zulfikar Mohamed, did admit that the gathering of factual information was not yet completed and even when this was done, the data would still have to be examined and analysed before conclusions were drawn.
Asked if the GCAA statement meant that the CAL’s airplane crash landing was caused by human error as is being reported in sections of the Guyana media, Mohamed told Newsday:
“Conclusions could not be drawn at this time. No one could tell us that, until the final investigations are concluded.”
The GCAA statement also said that “Detailed analyses will examine several other aspects of this flight to identify any other possible contributing factors in order to learn from this accident and to help identify any measures which may assist in the prevention of future occurrences.”
There had been some mixed feelings in the Trinidad press that night landing at the CJIA is dangerous because of poor lighting, among other factors- an accusation that the Guyana authorities had strongly objected to. Guyana had insisted that local historical records prove that the country has a strong safety rating.
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