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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
Nassau, Bahamas - (2:20pm EST) Update on tragic aviation accident in Mayaguana
by The Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin, Minister of Transport and Aviation:
I wish to provide an update to my previous statement on the status of the investigation of this tragic incident.
As previously communicated, an investigative team comprising members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) and the Air Accident Prevention and Investigation Unit (AAPIU) of the Civil Aviation Department traveled to Mayaguana at 5 a.m. this morning. At this moment that team is on the ground at the airport in Mayaguana conducting an investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic accident. In pursuance of this, witnesses are being interviewed and photographic and other pieces of evidence are being collected. I expect to travel to Mayaguana within the hour with the Member of Parliament for MICAL, Hon V. Alfred Gray.
The Bahamas Government is committed to ensuring that emergency capacity is installed in all airports nationwide. As a result of this commitment and under my tenure as Transport Minister between 2002 and 2007, solar powered emergency runway lights were installed at seventeen Family Island airports. This policy initiative eliminated the need for the use of high beam headlights from vehicles to illuminate Family Island airport runways in emergency situations.
The Mayaguana Airport is the subject of a Heads of Agreement with the I Group, a foreign development group which under that agreement were obliged to rehabilitate the airport inclusive of lights and runway resurfacing. That agreement was reviewed by the previous administration for several years and it was only until February 2012 that a revised agreement was finalized between the former Government and the I Group.
As a result of this terrible turn of event the Ministry of Transport is now intervening to procure the immediate installation of emergency lights in Mayaguana and will thereafter install lights in Fresh Creek Andros and Stella Maris, Long Island.
First Statement:
Tragic aviation accident in Mayaguana statement by Minister of Transport & Aviation
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