CAL flight makes safe landing
T&T Newsday Reports.
CARIBBEAN Airlines (CAL) Flight BW484, the target of a threat of sabotage, made in a telephone call emanating from Barbados, left Guyana yesterday at 6 am and made a safe landing at John F Kennedy Airport in New York.
International flights out of Cheddi Jagan Airport departed under heavier than usual security, Director General of Guyana’s Civil Aviation Authority Zulfikar Mohamed told Newsday yesterday.
Police and other security services, he said, have joined regular airport security to conduct security screening of all travellers. While the threat was made on BW 484, he said security will remain in place for an unspecified period.
According to Mohamed, the threat which emanated was one of “a threat of sabotage to BW 484.”
In the wake of the threat, TT Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz told Newsday, “we have always maintained a high level of security at our international airports. We continue to do that. Aviation security is of paramount importance and we do whatever is required of us and more to ensure the safety and security of passengers.”
In a statement to Guyana’s Parliament yesterday, that country’s Transport Minister Robeson Benn there was a 13 percent drop in the number of passengers yesterday due to the threat. Americans, however, were among passengers who left yesterday.
Benn is calling for Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States to assist in the investigations to determine, “who made the threat and the specific nature of the threat.”
The telephone threat, he said was made to CAL in Barbados by someone with a Trinidad accent. “The person ran off immediately when he was pressed for more information,” he said.
The CJIA and CAL, he said will continue with its elevated security details and 100 percent checks on all passengers.
