Guyana breaching ICAO rules over failure to release GDF helicopter crash report – Walton-Desir

Last Updated on Thursday, 5 February 2026, 23:32 by Writer

Leader of Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton-Desir on Wednesday indicated that Guyana is breaching the Convention on International Civil Aviation by failing to publish the report on the crash of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter that claimed the lives of five servicemen more than two years ago.

“We have a duty under the International Civil Aviation Convention…we have a duty under Annex 13, rather to report accidents and so from this place, on this floor I want to call for the release of the accident report in which we lost five of our servicemen,” she said during debate on the 2026 national budget.

Ms Walton-Desir, a former General Counsel to the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), conceded that certain parts of the report into the crash of the Bell 412 EPI helicopter on December 6, 2023 are omitted while it had been transporting the servicemen to an interior location, amid heightened tension between Guyana and Venezuela over the latter’s decades-old claim to the Essequibo Region.

“I understand that there might be national security implications, and the legal framework contemplates those being redacted, but families deserve closure, Mr. Speaker, and the aviation industry deserves the lessons,” she said. 

Annex 13 of the Convention requires that in the interest of accident prevention, the State conducting the investigation of an accident or incident shall make the Final Report publicly available as soon as possible and, if possible, within twelve months.

If the report cannot be made publicly available within 12 months, the State conducting the investigation shall make an interim statement publicly available on each anniversary of the occurrence, detailing the progress of the investigation and any safety issues raised.