By Nalinee Seelal Saturday, August 13 2011
Passengers aboard a Boeing 767 aircraft en route to Trinidad from New York went into panic mode yesterday when the pilot announced that he was making an emergency landing at the Piarco International Airport after smoke was detected in one of the aircraft cabins.
The aircraft, wet-leased by Caribbean Airlines, landed safely at Piarco, and can accommodate 270 passengers.
Yesterday, general manager of the Airports Authority, Louis Frederick, told Newsday that after the pilot contacted the Air Traffic Control Tower and said he was about to make an emergency landing — the Airports Authority placed all emergency response units on standby.
“The Airports Authority activated our emergency response units procedures which required among other things, for the aircraft passenger rescue and fire fighting facilities dispatched to the scene.”
He added that the plane landed without any issue and taxied to the gate under its own power.
According to Frederick, passengers and crew members disembarked safely and the aircraft was parked on Eastern Connector of the Piarco International Airport where civil aviation experts carried out tests to ascertain what caused the smoke.
He could not confirm the aircraft had been grounded, but assured that all measures were put in place by the Airports Authority.
Transport Minister, Devant Maharaj, confirmed the incident and also assured that operations at the Piarco International Airport were not affected, and flights were not disrupted.
Efforts to contact communications manager at Caribbean Airlines, Laura Asbjornsen for a comment proved futile.
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