GDF helicopter’s black box sent to US for analysis – Aviation Minister

Last Updated on Friday, 29 December 2023, 17:36 by Denis Chabrol

The investigator of the deadly Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter crash has taken the ‘black box’ to the United States for analysis as part of the probe into the incident earlier this month, Aviation Minister Juan Edghill said Friday.

Speaking at his year-end news conference, he said the black box, properly titled the Flight Data Recorder, of the Bell 412 Epi helicopter has been taken overseas by Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) accident/incident investigator,  Mr Krishnanand Ramlachana. “Last week, I approved for that investigator to travel to the United States to transport and deliver to the National Transportation Safety Board the black box so that the readings of that black box would be able to inform the investigation as it relates to what happened,” Mr Edghill said when asked by Demerara Waves Online News.

He said the results are due during the first quarter of 2024.

The aviation minister said the investigator was “actively pursuing” information about the weather at the time of the fatal crash and burn of the chopper about 30 miles east of Arau near the Guyana-Venezuela border on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. In keeping with the Civil Aviation Act and International Civil Aviation (ICAO) regulations, the investigator would submit his report to the Aviation Minister.

Mr Edghill said on the question of whether the helicopter, which bore registration markings 8R-AYA, had been transporting an engine to an interior location for a miner, “I’m unaware of that, I never heard that.” He said based on the flight plan the chopper was transporting military personnel on a “command mission.”

He declined to comment on how Corporal Dwayne Jackson and co-pilot Lieutenant Andio Crawford managed to escape life-threatening injuries and whether the pilot was in his designated seat at the time of the crash. “I’m not the investigator so I’m not asking those questions to anyone. I have an investigator who’s doing that,” he said.

Those who perished were Brigadier Gary Beaton, Colonel Michael Shahoud, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Charles (pilot), Lieutenant Colonel Sean Welcome and Staff Sergeant Jason Khan.