Latest update July 20th, 2026 6:24 AM
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Why was the fleet of Omni Helicopters Guyana Inc. not called out from Ogle to the sinking ferry MV Barima?
Dear Editor,
Omni Helicopters Guyana Inc. is a partnership with Roriama Airways owned by the Gouveia family, https://www.facebook.com/OHGInc/. Omni mainly services the offshore deep-water oilfield operations of Exxon Mobil Guyana Ltd. (EMGL) and has a fleet of six aircraft at Ogle, 20 minutes flying time from Iron Punt where the MV Barima ferry was sinking on the night of 18/19 July. Roraima Airways launched one of its fixed-wing aircraft after midnight, after a radio distress call was received from the ferry. The Roraima Airways plane saw distress flares and radioed back the GPS coordinates. Some survivors interviewed by a Kiskadee Watch reporter were rescued by boat after 6 hours in the water, but about half the crew and passengers on the ferry seem to have drowned.
Photos of some of the Omni helicopters on its website show that they are marked ‘Rescue’, and several staffers are trained as rescue swimmers.
Editor, through your columns, I ask whoever in the government of Guyana was in charge in the wee hours of 19 July: Why were the Bell rescue helicopters not launched immediately from Ogle, but only a single fixed-wing plane?
Yours truly,
Janette Bulkan
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