Pilot perishes in Eteringbang crash

Jul 26, 2017 News

Roraima Airways’ Chief Pilot Collin Winston Martin met a tragic demise around 17:30 hrs yesterday when the Britten-Norman Islander aircraft he was attempting to land at the Eteringbang airstrip, nose-dived into thick vegetation, a short distance from the runway.
The 40-year-old Martin, a former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer, assumed the role of chief pilot at Roraima Airways in 2015 following the death of Captain Alvin Clarke.
According to information received, Martin was heading to Eteringbang from Ekereku where he had shuttled fuel for miners when the tragedy occurred. He was flying alone.
No one could say for sure what exactly happened, but up to press time, investigators from the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) were interviewing another pilot who was flying behind Martin’s aircraft at the time.
Director of GCAA, Retired Lieutenant Colonel, Egbert Field said that a team from the Accident and Emergency Unit of the GCAA will be flying in to Eteringbang early today to inspect the crash site and interview witnesses.
Field said that around 18:30 hrs yesterday, he received a call from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Roraima Group of Companies, Gerry Gouveia who informed him that he received information that one of his aircraft, while approaching Eteringbang, had nosedived to the ground.
The director admitted that the area where the accident occurred is dangerous terrain.
However, the airstrip is on flat land and captain Martin would have landed there many times before. Field confirmed that weather was not a problem in the accident.
“The investigators have to look at the angle it (plane) went down, and a post mortem examination has to be done on the body,” Field told reporters at the Ogle Airstrip last night.
Meanwhile, the victim’s wife, Roberta Martin, a doctor, was not in a position to speak to the media. Through Wesley Kirton, a board member of the Roraima Group of Companies, the woman noted that she too is awaiting information about her husband’s death.
The couple shared an eight-year-old daughter, Rebecca.
Gouveia, on the other hand, said that the only report he received was that the aircraft was closing off its operation for the day when the accident occurred. He said that the pilot would have spent the night in Eteringbang and continued working today before heading to Ogle in the afternoon.
“The pilot was going in to land when the aircraft crashed. We don’t have any indication at this time what exactly transpired,” the CEO pointed out.
He confirmed that there were two planes flying at the time of the accident and the authorities will have to put the pieces together.
Gouveia said there was no distress signal, since the pilot flying at the back would have noticed and radioed in. He could not say whether the aircraft flipped before it went down.
Questioned on insurance, the CEO said that the aircraft and the crew are covered, and that that was not an issue.
“He was a very experienced pilot and the star medical evacuation pilot, He saved many lives at night across Guyana,” Gouveia noted.

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