Domestic aircraft owners in Guyana call for search and rescue council
|
| Published on Friday, November 7, 2008 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: The private air transportation industry in Guyana has slammed government for its reluctance to establish a national search and rescue council to deal with mishaps in the sector.
The call came in light of the disappearance of an American-registered aircraft on Saturday with three passengers, which still remains missing.
Former army captain and owner of RORAIMA Airways, Gerry Gouveia, on Thursday told CMC that local airline operators had been lobbying for such a council for years.
“We need a national search and rescue council in this country, that is maybe chaired by the Prime Minister and includes the head of the army, the police, private tour operators and the civil aviation authority, to draft policies and establish the protocol to respond to events of the plane crash,” Gouveia said.
“Look we have the aircraft missing, it went missing on Saturday. It went missing at 2o’clock and until 11o’clock Sunday then they started searching,” he continued. “If we had the council and a monitoring system then you would have known what to do…. We submitted proposals to the Transport Minister; we had meetings in the past on this, but no response from him. We are wiling to make our plane available initially until government can get the resources but nobody cares. But when a plane goes missing then everybody talks about search and rescue.”
He noted that due to what he termed the lackadaisical attitude of the Minister toward the suggestion of the council, the private aircraft industry has moved to establish its own search and rescue unit.
“ We as private operators have already set up our search and rescue team. We pool our resources and it is working well but what about foreign aircrafts coming into Guyana?” Gouveia said. “The minister and the president need to wake up and see the need for this. We have over a hundred flights to the interior daily, tourism is booming but if people hear there is no search and rescue what will happen? They won’t want to fly, despite knowing that the aircraft is safe. People will feel more comfortable with a proper search and rescue response system.”
Gouveia is one of the veteran pilots in Guyana who has been on hundreds of search and rescue operations in that country.
Meanwhile, after five days of search for the US-registered aircraft, no progress has been made and the team has now been joined by a helicopter from Suriname and a fixed wing aircraft from Dynamics Aviation Incorporated, the owner of the missing aircraft. | | | | Reads : 614 |
|
