Passengers stranded because of cancelled LIAT flight

Roland Mitchell has become the poster boy of about thirty desperate travelers who were left stranded at the E.T. Joshua Airport earlier this week by regional airline LIAT.{{more}}

The Grenadian born, Vincentian bred, Canadian resident was scheduled to leave St. Vincent on the night of Sunday, July 12th, in order to, like a number of others in the group, resume work.

“Basically, I got fired on the phone. My boss fired me on the phone. I was supposed to be in first thing tomorrow morning (Tuesday) to take up work, but this is my situation right now here.”

Mitchell, the Senior Crane operator at Stacks Iron and Metal scrap yard in Toronto, said that he was scheduled to leave on Sunday night at 8:30pm on LIAT flight 311 to Trinidad and Tobago, via Grenada, with a connecting flight to Canada, but his flight came in four hours late and no other flights were scheduled to leave after that.

He said that he and other passengers were given no explanation for the delay. Then at about 1:30 on Monday morning, they were told that the flight had been cancelled.

The travelers were given a meal, then asked to return later that day.

Some of the customers were back as early as 4am, hoping to get seats on the ‘first flight’ out, while others returned later that day, but all to no avail.

One woman, travelling with three children to New York, lamented to SEARCHLIGHT that apart from having their flight cancelled with no guarantee when they were to depart, persons at the airline counter informed her that LIAT would not be responsible for any charges incurred for their onward trip to North America.

“We have to pay change fees, and if there is an increase in fare we have to pay that as well.”

“If we had communication (from LIAT) then we would have made arrangements, but nobody said anything,” she said.

An elderly man on his way to New York added: “We look like we stranded here ‘til Thursday, and if we get to Trinidad who will get us out of there?”

Mitchell was given a letter from airline officials to take to his employer, which they hope will help him to hold on to his job, which he has had for seven years.

“I got my kids to mind, my mortgage to pay, my bills to pay. If I don’t have my job when I get back to Canada, I’m toast.

“I came here on a little vacation and it was good until I have to leave here; now I’m disappointed,” Mitchell bemoaned.

He left here on Monday night for Trinidad with his fingers crossed.

A release obtained from LIAT on Wednesday indicated that passengers who were re-booked on Monday evening’s flight and other LIAT connecting flights paid no extra cost.

According to the release, “LIAT (has) sought to assist passengers by seeking a waiver to the payment of change fees” on all other carriers.

Sunday evening’s problem began with the departure of LI311 from Antigua over four hours late. “The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Airport Authority agreed to remain open to accommodate the service. However, following the arrival of LI 311 at 12:31am, the Air Traffic Controller on duty at the E.T. Joshua Airport did not agree to further extend the time to allow the plane to leave. In any event, due to a breakdown of the navigation equipment, no aircraft was able to operate into Grenada’s Maurice Bishop International Airport,” the release from LIAT said.