July 31, 2011
Rescue
workers inspect a Caribbean Airlines jet after it skidded off the
runway at Cheddi Jagan International airport outside Georgetown on July
30, 2011. — Reuters pic
GEORGETOWN, July 31 — A packed
Caribbean Airlines jet carrying 163 people crashed and broke in two
yesterday as it landed in Guyana at night, injuring dozens of passengers
but killing no one.
The Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway and burst through a perimeter
fence after arriving at Georgetown’s Cheddi Jagan airport just past
midnight from New York. The front of the plane snapped off and it
stopped meters from a jungle ravine.
No fire appears to have broken out on the jet.
“It’s an absolute miracle what happened here in Georgetown,” said
Caribbean Airlines chairman George Nicholas, who visited the crash site.
Passengers screamed when the plane lost control and many fled down
emergency inflatable slides when it finally came to a stop, a local
newspaper reported.
“It was terror,” a woman passenger whose husband opened the exit door
told the newspaper Kaieteur News. “I was praying to Jesus.”
Flight BW 523 was carrying 157 passengers and six crew. The Trinidad
and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines said it did not know the cause of
the accident. Investigators from the United States and Guyana were sent
to retrieve the black box.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that 12 Canadians were on the flight, and one was slightly injured.
Trinidad and Tobago’s transport minister said four people were
hospitalised with serious injuries. One passenger suffered a broken leg,
an airline spokeswoman said, and others reported neck and back
injuries.
“We are very, very thankful and grateful that there are no deaths,” Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo said at the airport.
A photo published by local newspaper Stabroek News showed a Caribbean
Airlines plane with the half its fuselage broken off and resting in
thick undergrowth.
The summer months are a busy travel period in Guyana as many citizens
who live overseas return for vacations. The airport closed for several
hours after the crash but reopened by midday.
Boeing’s 737-800 model was introduced in 1996 and has previously
suffered eight serious crashes causing a total of 525 deaths, according
to the Flight Safety Foundation. — Reuters
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