Plane disappears en route to accident victims

Search and Rescue efforts were still ongoing yesterday, Monday, for the Cessna aircraft that disappeared last Thursday, August 5.{{more}}

The plane, owned by local carrier SVG Air, was being operated by Captain Suresh Lakhram, the only person on the aircraft. The plane had left the E.T Joshua Airport around 6:10 p.m. en route to Canouan to airlift two accident victims to the mainland.

Director of Airports, Corsel Robertson, said she received a call some 20 minutes later at 6:30 p.m. indicating that the light aircraft had gone missing.

It was reported that minutes into the flight, Lakhram made contact with air traffic control at E.T Joshua, but according to Robertson, based on the information she received, the transmission was inaudible.

It was noted that Lakhram was making reference to the aircraft, but the bad transmission made it difficult for air traffic controllers to make a positive determination as to what the pilot was making reference to.

There was no further transmission between the pilot and air traffic control thereafter.

“A LIAT Dash 8 was subsequently asked to go look for the aircraft,” Robertson disclosed.

That LIAT flight was in bound from Barbados, and headed South in the direction of Canouan, but reported back with nothing, Robertson further said.

Brenton Cain, Commander of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard said that an initial report came in from a man on a vessel, identified as one James Hutchinson, who reported that he heard a “funny sounds coming from an aircraft.”

Commander Cain said that he was informed by Hutchinson that he had also seen what appeared to be firecrackers in the water and falling debris.

“We launched efforts right away,” Cain told members of the media.

He confirmed that some debris was located about seven and a half miles west of Mustique.

Hutchinson had initially reported that he was located about seven miles South of where he had seen the debris falling and had waited around for the Coast Guard officials to show the exact location, this according to Cain.

The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, who arrived in the state last Friday, August 6 have joined in the search efforts.

Lieutenant Lorenzo Chariandy of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard Services informed media that further manpower and equipment including Sonar technology capable of probing depths of up to 1,000 feet arrived subsequently.

The Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authorities have since arrived in the island to begin their investigation.

This tragedy comes almost four years after a November 19, 2006 incident in which an Aero Commander 500S, also owned and operated by SVG Air, on a flight from Canouan, vanished when it was on its final approach to E. T. Joshua Airport.

Rasheed Ibrahim and Dominic Gonsalves, passenger and pilot respectively, were never found. (DD)