GCAA probing “runway incursion” at CJIA

Last Updated on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, 23:09 by Writer

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is investigating whether a potentially major incident involving a domestic plane and a Caribbean Airlines passenger jet was averted Monday night at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) as a result of an alleged runway incursion, officials said Tuesday night.

In keeping with procedures, the domestic pilots of the Roraima Airways-owned Britten Norman Islander aircraft have since been grounded by the aviation regulator pending the outcome of an investigation into the “runway incursion”, Director-General, Retired Lt. Col. Egbert Field told Demerara Waves Online News.

“One aircraft was taxiing and the other was about to land. It is good that one aircraft stopped well short of the other aircraft while it was on the runway,” Mr Field said.

Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways, Gerry Gouveia declined to comment extensively because the matter was under investigation “other than to say my pilots conducted a normal and safe approach to land at CJIA following ATC (Air Traffic Control) instructions.”

The GCAA Director-General said a probe would include obtaining the recordings from the Air Traffic Control tower and possibly high resolution video recordings of the incident from cameras atop the tower. “They (investigators) would have to put together the timeline and check on the chain of events and come up with recommendations,” he said.

It was unclear whether the Caribbean Airlines’ pilots filed a Mandatory Occurrence Report with the GCAA, its Trinidad counterpart or the Trinidad-headquartered regional and international carrier.

Demerara Waves Online News was told that the Roraima Airways plane complied with an initial ATC instruction to proceed to an unused runway but shortly after allegedly returned to the main runway while the just-landed Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 was taxiing.