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  • 10 months ago
A CAL aircraft runs out of fuel for one of its engines forcing an emergency landing last night at Piarco during a flight on the airbridge.

This is confirmed by the airline which stated that the flight crew and passengers all landed safely.

The Finance Minister came to the Senate on Tuesday to answer an urgent question on the matter from the Opposition.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
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00:21A Cal aircraft runs out of fuel for one of its engines forcing an emergency
00:26landing last night at Piarco during a flight on the air bridge. This is
00:30confirmed by the airline which stated that the flight crew and passengers all
00:34landed safely. The Finance Minister came to the Senate today to answer an urgent
00:39question on the matter from the opposition. Jule Brown reports. The line
00:45minister for state-owned the Caribbean Airlines, Finance Minister Colm Imbert
00:48was in the Senate on Tuesday to answer an urgent question from Leader of
00:53Opposition Business Wade Mark about the emergency landing of a Cal flight. The
00:57Finance Minister said he received a technical report from Cal which stated
01:02the emergency landing occurred at approximately 10 p.m. on Monday at the
01:06Piarco International Airport. One of the engines basically ran out of fuel which
01:13caused the captain to make the mandatory announcement in accordance with civil
01:19aviation regulations to the passengers is that they should get into the
01:25position that is recommended for emergency landing. The captain managed to
01:32pilot the aircraft safely and landed well. There were no injuries or anything
01:40of that nature to the passengers. The Finance Minister said the Cal report
01:44stated the aircraft had the registration 9YTTC. Caribbean Airlines said in a
01:50statement on Tuesday that it was an ATR 72-600 aircraft. And the aircraft has
01:57since been withdrawn from service but it appears the problem arose from inaccurate
02:04measurements of the amount of fuel in the left tank of the aircraft. Can the
02:12Minister indicate Mr. President whether an investigation has been launched and
02:17whether that investigation will in fact result in us the public being more aware
02:24of what actually occurred. The Finance Minister's response was focused on
02:29Cal's own procedures. I did myself ask that question. It's a natural question to
02:35ask. There are three persons involved the pilot and two technicians with respect
02:40to the whole question of how much fuel was in the particular tank that fed the
02:43particular engine that had the problem. So they have been, I don't want to use the
02:51word withdrawn from service, but the aircraft has been withdrawn from service
02:54and these three individuals are not in active service at this point in time
02:58which is normal when you're doing an investigation. Minister Inbred said Cal
03:02will follow their normal procedures in that regard. I don't know the names of
03:07the individuals. I myself, I don't think I should get involved with that but
03:11Caribbean Airlines will follow all the established procedures in accordance
03:15with civil aviation rules and regulations and their own internal
03:19industrial relations procedures to make sure that all persons involved get a
03:24fair hearing and that the root cause of the problem is determined. Okay. Senator
03:31Mark told the Senate there was a similar incident involving a similar Caribbean
03:34Airlines aircraft in August of last year, 2024. May I ask the Honourable Minister
03:39simply whether he's aware of an incident that took place in August of last year
03:45and what steps were taken by the company to address that issue at that time, have
03:52in regard to its reoccurrence. Minister of Finance. No, I am not aware. However, I am told that the
04:00preliminary information is that there's nothing wrong with the aircraft itself.
04:04It was simply the measurement of the amount of fuel that was in the tank so
04:09it's nothing wrong with the plane. I'm not aware of that but thank you for that
04:12information. Now that you've told me that there was an incident with an aircraft
04:17last year, I will certainly ask for details with respect to that matter but
04:23I'm not aware of it. Caribbean Airlines said in a statement that an emergency
04:27landing was declared for its flight BW1541 en route from Tobago to Trinidad
04:32which landed safely at the Piaco Airport on Monday. The state-owned airline
04:36further said the aircraft will be taken out of rotation to facilitate inspection.
04:41Jewel Brown, TV6 News. Meantime, the Trinidad and Tobago Airline Pilots
04:46Association says it is deeply concerned by the recent incidents and notes the
04:51association has raised multiple safety concerns with Cal over the ATR aircraft
04:56over the last decade. The association says although it would be premature to
05:01comment on what caused the incident, in recent months a similar Cal aircraft
05:05have had what the association terms multiple safety related near misses.
05:12Talpa says it is committed to urgently meeting with Cal and all concerned
05:16stakeholders to avoid any future recurrence of this incident as the
05:20safety and comfort of the traveling public members and staff are of utmost
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