One plane barred from leaving Anguilla

Last Updated on Sunday, 26 June 2016, 18:05 by Denis Chabrol

FILE PHOTO: The two planes at the Eugene F. Correia (Ogle) International Airport

One of the planes that was flown out of Guyana without genuine clearances  Sunday morning left  Anguilla for Puerto Rico, while the other was left behind on that tiny British dependency, according to usually reliable sources.

The sources said the Cessna 206, bearing registration number 8R-GTP, was allowed to leave Anguilla’s Clayton Lloyd International Airport after receiving clearance from the civil aviation body there. However, the other Cessna 206, with registration number 8R-GMP, was prevented from departing because it did not have the required airworthiness certificate in violation of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations barred it.

According to sources, the pilots allegedly left behind in Guyana forged customs and immigration documents.

Demerara Waves Online News was told that three persons left Anguilla aboard the plane to San Juan in accordance with its filed flight plan there.

The sources said one option available to the owner of the aircraft is to put it in a crate and ship to the United States or elsewhere.

Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson could not say whether the documents left by the pilots were forged. She said the ongoing probe includes a legal assessment by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

The Eugene F. Correia (Ogle) International Airport has confirmed that two persons, with approved airside passes, entered the airport and flew out the planes early Saturday morning without clearance from air traffic control, customs or immigration.

The aircraft, valued at least US$110,000 each, are owned by Oxford Aviation. One of the planes was piloted by Munidat Persaud, a Guyana-born American who operates a charter service and flight school in the US.

Persaud removed the planes in violation of a High Court injunction pending the hearing and determination of  a case in which one of Oxford Aviation planes had allegedly damaged a plane belonging to Orlando Charles’ Domestic Airways.

Oxford refused to pay the claimed amount for the damage and was taken to court.

Sources said the planes flew through Trinidad airspace, landed in Grenada and then Anguilla where they were detained until one of them was given clearance to depart Sunday morning.

A Eugene F. Correia International Airport spokesman stressed that the airport’s security was not breached because the pilots had airside passes, but he conceded that Guyana’s national security has been violated due to the illegal departure of the planes.