GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — A Caribbean
Airlines jet coming from New York crashed and broke in two while
landing in Guyana with 163 people aboard on Saturday, causing
several injuries but no deaths, said President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Boeing 737-800 apparently overshot the
7,400-foot (2,200-meter) runway at Cheddi Jagan International
Airport in rainy weather and barreled through a chain-link fence.
It barely missed a 200-foot (60-meter) ravine that could have
resulted in dozens of fatalities, he said.
“We are very, very grateful that more people
were not injured,” he said as authorities temporarily closed the
airport, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and delaying
dozens of flights. The cause of the crash was not immediately
clear.
Authorities struggled at first to remove
passengers without adequate field lights and other emergency
equipment. About 100 people received medical attention, with four
hospitalized for serious injuries, said Devant Maharaj,
transportation minister in Trinidad, where Caribbean Airlines is
based.
He said the company is sending a team to
Guyana to help investigate the crash. No further details were
available. Maharaj spoke at a press conference in Trinidad and took
no questions, saying the investigation is ongoing.
Among the injured was Geeta Ramsingh, 41, of
Philadelphia, who said passengers had just started to applaud the
touchdown “when it turned to screams,” she said, pointing to
bruises on her knees. She said she hopped onto the wing and then
onto the dirt road outside the runway fence.
“I am upset that no one came to rescue us in
the dark, but a taxi driver appeared from nowhere and charged me
$20 to take me to the terminal. I had to pay, but in times of
emergencies, you don’t charge people for a ride,” she said, sitting
on a chair in the arrival area surrounded by relatives. She was
returning to her native country for only the second time in 30
years.
Adis Cambridge, 42, of Guyana, said she felt
the thump of a hard landing but did not think much of it until
seconds later.
“I realized that everything was on top of me,
people and bags. I was the second to last person to get off that
plane in the dark,” she said, surrounded by her two young children
who had come to the airport to meet her after a brief holiday in
the U.S.
“I hit my head on the roof. It was so scary,”
she said as she described hopping onto the wing and then jumping
down to the dirt road below as crews with flashlights and beams
from fire engines searched for passengers.
Some passengers asked authorities for their
luggage but were told it was not a priority at the time.
The plane had left New York and made a stop
in Trinidad before landing in Guyana. The airline said it was
carrying 157 passengers and six crewmembers.
Jagdeo said he has asked the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board to help investigate the crash.
The airport’s main terminal reopened late
Saturday morning to only a couple of small planes, including a LIAT
airline bound for Barbados, said Orin Walton, a local
representative for the Antigua-based carrier.
The crash of Flight BW523 is the worst in
recent history in Guyana, and only one of the few serious incidents
involving the Trinidad-based airline. It is the single largest
carrier in the region, operating at least five daily flights.
——
Associated Press Writer Tony Fraser in
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad contributed to this report.
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