By Oscar Ramjeet
News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Thurs. Aug. 4, 2011: Caribbean Airlines flight 523, which crashed in Guyana in the wee hours of July 30th, is set to be dismantled and parts would be taken overseas for intensive analysis, News Americas understands.
The news comes as the investigation into the cause of the 1:25 am (EDT) crash at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport continues. Investigators from the United States including some from the US National Transportation Safety Board, the Caribbean, the aircraft manufacturers as well as officials from the Guyana Civil Aviation concluded four days of investigations into Saturday morning accident.
But nothing has been conclusive and investigators are continuing to investigate, already interviewing dozens of persons in connection with the incident.
Several officials from the airline, CAL, are still in Guyana as well as personnel from the government of Trinidad and Tobago are conducting “stress tests” on crew members and some of the passengers.
Only 35 of the 162 passengers and crewmembers were injured and only two received relatively serious injuries – a fractured leg and a concussion.
Reports from Georgetown state that the investigations will last for weeks.
The flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Caribbean Airlines flight are with NTSB officials in Washington, DC, who will download and read out data on both to try to ascertain the cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, Demerara Waves reported on Wednesday that firefighters at the airport knew that the aircraft that was arriving from Trinidad was in trouble when they saw it touching down in line with the terminal building and they immediately doused a smoking engine with foam.
The Denis Chabrol report stated that: “The commanding Officer of the airport’s Guyana Fire Service station related to American investigators that units with more than 12 men responded to the scene and spewed foam on the smoking number 2 engines.”
The report added that they (firemen) saw when the pilot touched down in front of the terminal building and claimed they knew he could not make it because “he touched down too short.”
Sources told Demerara Waves that the main gears were already on the runway but the nose wheel had not yet touched down. The brakes do not activate until the nose-wheel touches down.
The sources explained that although the flap-control inside the cock-pit was at 35 degrees, the flaps were at zero. That suggests that the flaps might have malfunctioned or the control set at 35 degrees after the aircraft stopped, but the flaps did not move because the engine had been already turned off, the source said.
“With a flapless landing, the approach speed was too much, though the reverse thrust was activated, and so they could not stop the aircraft safely on such a short runway,” the sources said.
