Coast Guard defends 4-hour response time

Oct 16, 2026 News

(Kaieteur News) – As the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the maritime disaster involving the MV Barima continued on Thursday, testimony was provided by Lieutenant Rolwyn Heywood of the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard. Lieutenant Heywood, of the GDF with six years of service in the Coast Guard, offered the commission a detailed timeline of the emergency response, addressing resource limitations, and operational challenges faced on the night of the incident.

Coast Guard defends 4-hour response time

Lieutenant Coast Guard Rolwyn Heywood (right)

Lieutenant Heywood testified that it took over four hours from the initial distress signal to get Coast Guard assets on the scene near the Pomeroon River mouth, arriving just after 1:00 AM. He explained that two hours were needed to ascertain the nature of the distress signal, and another two hours were spent transiting from the Coast Guard base at Ruimveldt to the location. While Heywood defended the four-hour deployment time as the fastest possible response under the circumstances, noting that personnel had to be mobilised from their homes in areas like Linden and the East Coast, he conceded under questioning that having no On-Scene Commander for over eight hours was not reasonable “No, but each vessel had its own Commander”.

The operational centre in Ruimveldt received the initial EPIRB distress alert on July 18 at 22:51 hours. Heywood acknowledged the alert, plotted the data on a map within 19 minutes, and contacted Coast Guard Commander David Shamshudeen by 23:10 hours. Heywood explained that responders initially did not know the exact nature of the distress or that the vessel in trouble was the MV Barima. It was only after a flare was spotted following 1:00 AM that the identity of the vessel was confirmed.

Because the nature of the distress was initially unknown, authorities established a very small initial search radius before midnight. This was later expanded to a 5-nautical-mile radius, before eventually growing into a massive search zone as the situation unfolded. Specific physical and digital map information was noted to be on board the GDFS Shahoud.

By July 19, the search operation involved six Coast Guard personnel, 12 civilians, and four vessels responding to individual EPIRB signals. By the following day, the operation had scaled to 32 vessels in the area, including commercial fishing vessels, Coast Guard craft, Maritime Administration Department vessels, and civilian vessels. Visibility during night operations was described as extremely poor, requiring coordinated air and maritime assets managed through the Air Traffic Control Tower.

Heywood noted that he was deployed aboard the 54-meter GDF Shahoud as the Navigation Officer. The vessel, which has a draft of 4.5 meters and requires significant time to manoeuvre out of port, departed Ruimveldt at 03:30 hours and arrived in the area of operation around 07:30 hours. Around 08:50 hours, crews aboard the GDFS, Shahoud spotted empty life rafts floating amidst swells occurring at intervals of 4 to 7 seconds. Finding no centralised command structure at sea upon their arrival, the GDFS Shahoud assumed the role of On-Scene Commander, coordinating with nearby vessels via Harris radios and marine VHF channels, though Heywood confirmed the vessel lacked a Direction Finder on board.

When questioned by Commission members Captain Hamada Fouda and Rear Admiral Pritchard, Lt. Heywood clarified protocols for handling survivors. Coast Guard vessels worked alongside local fishing boats, including a vessel operated by Haresh Singh. Responders transferred survivors onto Coast Guard craft where personnel, trained in basic first aid, though without specialised medical staff on board, administered emergency care before transporting them to the nearest medical facility. Heywood explained that manual chart plotting was performed on board the vessel rather than extensively at Ruimveldt due to minimum staffing levels at the ops room and the heavy volume of communications required during the initial emergency call-out. It was also highlighted during testimony that the local Lighthouse remains the only dedicated coastal radio station operating in Guyana.

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Coast Guard, Commission of Inquiry, Guyana Defence Force, MV Barima

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